New York, Nov. 1 (UPI) — Freaks and Geeks, Party Down and Spider-Man alum Martin Starr says he was happy to learn that his character Bodhi would bond with Sylvester Stallone’s mob boss Dwight on a different level in Tulsa King Season 4.
“It’s exciting to get to play with a talented legend like Sly in a new way,” Starr, 44, told UPI in a recent Zoom interview.
“These emotional beats are therapy. It’s why I love doing this so much. It’s fun to make people laugh and all that is really fun to explore in general. But to, hopefully, get to share a different impact and emotion with people is just as exciting.”
The Paramount+ drama kicked off this season with the plane-crash deaths of Dwight’s girlfriend Margaret (Dana Delany) and her boss Cal (Neal McDonough), the governor of Oklahoma.
Bodhi is in charge of Dwight’s legalized weed operation and often offers comic relief in difficult situations.
This season, he appears more serious, trying to get Dwight to talk about his feelings by revealing for the first time that he understands loss because his own wife and little girl died in a car accident years earlier.
“Grief is a journey for everyone and it’s individual to the person. But I think, in that moment, Bodhi feels the need to share with him because he sees himself and one of the most painful aspects of grief is loneliness and to not feel alone in that experience is all you can really do for somebody,” Starr explained. “That’s what that moment of reaching out is.”
New episodes also show Dwight beginning to suffer age-related health issues, making viewers wonder if an heir to his throne will be chosen any time soon, even though the series has already been renewed for a fifth season with Stallone, 80, expected to continue as the star.
Asked if he thinks smart and level-headed Bodhi might be the one Dwight names his successor, as opposed to Swight’s other soldiers Mitch (Garrett Hedlund) or Tyson (Jay Will), Starr replied: “I don’t think Bodhi wants it.
“That’s the biggest difference, which may, in essence, kind of make him probably the best suited for it, in a certain way, but I don’t know that he would take that opportunity if it were handed to him.”
At least once a season, there is a scene that brings Dwight’s entire crime family together, whether it is for a celebration, an important strategy meeting or an all-hands-on-deck brawl with their enemies.
Starr said these give the cast the chance to interact with people they don’t often get to see since their characters are running their own businesses within the larger organization.
“It’s exciting in some ways. It also takes a lot more time because you’re doing a lot of coverage,” he added.
“So, in general, there’s a tediousness to the process. But it is more fun because there’s more energy and it’s exciting to have everybody in one place, which is, obviously, not our usual story. So, it’s fun just to get to see everybody. It’s like having a little reunion.”