Sylvester Stallone Was ‘Nervous’ to Work with Samuel L. Jackson in Tulsa King (Exclusive)

Sylvester Stallone admits to feeling a sense of pressure after learning that Samuel L. Jackson would be joining the cast of Tulsa King.

Speaking to PEOPLE about season 3 of the hit drama series, which is now streaming on Paramount+, Stallone, 79, says learning that Jackson, 76, was joining the cast felt like a major moment. 

“When I heard that was gonna happen, I went, ‘Oh, this is gonna be a fist fight. This is gonna be a battle,'” the Rocky actor recalls. “Like two boxers in a ring, and who is gonna throw the first punch? So you’re getting nervous because you’re dealing with serious competition.”

It didn’t take long for Stallone, who leads the series as mafia capo Dwight “The General” Manfredi, to realize that Jackson, who plays ex-con Russell Lee Washington Jr., would be a friend and not a foe.

“Once he walks in, he goes, ‘Hey, dude brother,’ and I went, ‘Oh, here it goes.’ But now we’re good. Now we’re flowing,” Stallone says. “We could do a show called Tulsa King and Buddy. We just worked that well together.”

Despite Tulsa King marking their first time working on-screen together, Stallone says they’d actually been around each other for decades.

“We lived about a hundred yards away from each other for almost 30 years,” he shares. “Yet we didn’t— you know, we’re always working. So we never really saw each other, except at Planet Hollywood-type things or openings.”

Though their careers took different paths, Stallone notes a common turning point.

“I guess he got to the point that I did that he’s done pretty much everything,” Stallone says. “But at this age in life, you want to be a little bit more grounded, steady, have your own show so you develop this thing, really flesh it out instead of working someplace for 10 days or a gig here and there.”

Looking back on his own journey, Stallone says he’s still surprised by how far he’s come, from struggling actor to Oscar winner.

“That journey — I wish I had been more aware,” he reflects. “But you’re just trying to survive. You’re not even aware of the chaos around it, because I said, ‘I’ve got to do this.’ I told myself, ‘You’re probably not going to make it, but I don’t want you to have any damn regrets. You have to go 100%, not 99.’”

As for his legacy? “When you lay back and you’re looking [at your life], you just say, ‘Dear Lord, I tried my best,’” Stallone says. “I didn’t hold back anything. So that’s really what my legacy is, that I didn’t quit.”

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Season 3 of Tulsa King is now available to stream on Paramount+, with new episodes dropping on Sundays.