Re: Cating Agency Quits TULSA KING Over Stallone's Mocking of Extras

On 4/11/2024 3:38 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:

BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com> wrote:

It didn’t bother Thomas Mooneyham that he saw Sylvester Stallone glancing more

than once at him or how he was asked to leave a bar scene so he could be
replaced with a younger cowboy and a "good-looking cowgirl".

>
What upset the 53-year-old Tennessee man who drove four hours on April 4 to

serve as an extra on the Paramount+ series TULSA KING was learning how one
of
the background actors was allegedly described by Stallone as a "tub of
lard"
and "fat guy with a cane". He never heard Stallone or the director
utter
disparaging words about background actors that day but he's convinced some
of
those comments were directed at him personally after he read about them on
a
private Facebook page for BG actors.

>

>
So there’s no evidence that any of this happened at all, it’s just a rumor
on the Facebook.
>
>

"I was seated at a table with another gentleman, like we were listening to the

band," recalls Mooneyham, who tells Deadline that he uses a cane because of
bone-on bone pain in his knee. "Stallone's table with the other main
characters was diagonal from ours, about 12 feet away. I did notice that he
looked at me a time or two
>
Gasp!
>
>
and he talked with, I guess, the director and
laughed with him and all. But I didn't put anything together. Then we were
moved from the scene and replaced with the younger cowboy and a good
looking
cowgirl. Now does that bother me? Not in the least. What bothers me
is that
somebody overheard him and the director. It ain't even the part that I am
fat.
>
Or ain’t speak proper English
>
>
I wasn't the only big one that was there. But I do feel like I was singled
out
because they said 'old tub of lard with the cane'. I was the only one there
with the cane."

>
Mooneyham is speaking out about his 12-hour day on the Atlanta set of the

series that led to the resignation of Rose Locke Casting, a local company
hired to find background actors for Season 2 of the Stallone series.
Deadline
first broke the story on Monday; reps for the Paramount+ show and Stallone
have yet to comment.

>
Locke told her clients that she left the series because of disparaging

language allegedly used by Stallone to describe the extras--
>
That she had miscast
>
>
an accusation
that director Craig Zisk denied to TMZ after Deadline broke the story. Zisk
told the outlet that Locke failed to do her job by not recruiting extras in
the 20s and 30s range for a scene involving a hip bar.

>
A source close to the show told Deadline Wednesday that producers were

concerned about matching scenes from last season, which led to differences
of
opinion over casting. Producers apparently have talked to the cast and crew
about the situation and emphasized their commitment to fostering an
inclusive
work environment.

>
Mooneyham says the set he was working on that day was the Bred-2-Buck Bar, a

fictitious Tulsa saloon that's owned by Stallone's character Dwight
Manfredi
in the series. "That's not a young hipster bar that other people
are trying to
make it out to be," he said. "That is just an old roughneck cowboy country
bar. And the name of the bar, here's my point, is Bred-2-Buck. Tell me how
many old bronco-riding cowboys who are old and who are not hobbled or
crippled? How would a gentleman with a cane not fit into that? But the main
thing is my cane was not even visible in the scene. I had it hidden behind
my
body."

>

>
Which was it difficult as his body is three times the diameter it should be
>
>

Before Mooneyham came to work that day, he considered it a dream gig because

TULSA KING is a series that he and his son watch together. A tax specialist
by
day for H&R Block, Mooneyham has been working for two years as an extra and
has already booked several films and TV shows, including a two-day gig on
the
upcoming film CIVIL WAR.

>
"When I worked on CIVIL WAR two years ago, I weighed 390 pounds. I could

barely walk," recalls Mooneyham, who appears briefly in the movie's
official
trailer. "I had to use a mobility scooter but not a one of 'em on
set said
anything about it to me or made a fuss about it. The producers went out of
the
way to help me get my scooter loaded into the van."

>
He says his experience on TULSA KING was a far cry from what his experienced

on the motion picture. "I don't understand. I know there was all this talk
about older folks. Older, too old. How does he justify that we are too old
when he’s 20-some years older than we are? I'm 53 years old. Stallone is
77.
How the hell am I too old?"

>

>
Too old, too stupid, too fat
>
>

"I've experienced nothing like this before," says Mooneyham, who adds he

doesn’t fault the casting director. He also has no plans to quit doing
background work.

>
"Some people say I'm thin-skinned.

>
Of course, he’s thin skinned. His skin is stretched out to cover an area
three times larger than it was ever intended to.
>
>
>
People think that I'm making a fuss. I
never made a fuss until Rose contacted me about it,"
>
>
And now you’re making a fuss. Which is why people think you’re making a
fuss.
>
>
says Mooneyham. "My
feelings got hurt a little. But you know what? I'm more pissed than hurt.
And
it's just because of my disability."

>

>
Disability? You’re unable to stop shoving the Cheetos down your face 24/7
and your claiming it as a disability?

 If I'm following the plot here, Stallone said something in private that someone eavesdropped and posted.  Unless it was state secrets, I think he gets a pass.
 Meanwhile, in an industry where body stereotypes are valued, this guy markets his own corpulence.  So, no one should comment on it openly?