Sylvester Stallone Defends Daughter’s Tulsa King Role as ‘Nepotism’

By Grace Kim

Scarlet Rose Stallone returns to Tulsa King Season 4 as Spencer, a stablehand at Fennario Ranch, in the Paramount+ series that premiered Oct. 16. She co-stars with her father, Sylvester Stallone, and takes a larger role in the show’s family business.

Her return enlarges a part first introduced in Season 1. The new assignment places her inside the show’s family business, giving the casting a broader on-screen test.

What does the nepotism debate change for Scarlet?

Stallone addressed the criticism without disowning his daughter’s advantage. “First they go, ‘Nepotism is terrible,’” he told USA Today. “I said, ‘Oh please, you’re not a good parent if you haven’t performed a little nepotism. Then obviously you don’t care about your kids, because they come first.’”

He did not soften that position when describing the casting. “Of course it’s nepotism, you idiot. That’s why we’re parents. We want the best for our children. So obviously, we let them have every advantage.” In his account, nepotism means preferential treatment based on family ties; the argument separates access to the role from the ability to hold it.

Stallone acknowledged that his career may have helped Scarlet land the part, but he said she still has to prove herself. Maintaining the expected level of excellence is beyond a parent’s control, he said. Family can open the door, yet the performer must demonstrate the ability to pass through it.

He also warned that success can create pressure after the breakthrough, leaving the performer to solve the next stage rather than treating access as the finish. That concern extends beyond acting experience: once a family-backed opportunity arrives, the performer must build a career the family connection alone cannot sustain.

The distinction matters for what the debate establishes. Stallone did not claim that family influence disappears once a role is secured; he treated that influence as a parent’s duty and the performer’s burden to overcome. Spencer’s expanded assignment gives the argument its practical test, because her work continues across the season rather than ending with her Season 1 introduction.

Spencer’s work at Fennario Ranch

The Season 4 setup moves Spencer into the show’s family business. She arrives at Fennario Ranch after working as a barista, then becomes a horse caretaker and stablehand (a worker who tends horses), hired by Dwight “The General” Manfredi. Stallone plays that mob boss, who is exiled to Tulsa, Oklahoma, after serving 25 years in prison.

Paramount+ premiered Season 4 on Oct. 16 and schedules new episodes weekly on Fridays at midnight Pacific Time (PT). The weekly schedule gives the casting argument a sustained setting, with Spencer working alongside her father’s mob boss across successive episodes.

The practical change is clear: the casting supplies access, while the recurring role measures whether she can meet the standard Stallone says she must prove. The weekly episodes will supply that evidence, not the family connection.