*For Jay Will, acting has never been about imitation. It has always been about alignment.
The breakout star of “Tulsa King,” where he plays Tyson Mitchell opposite Sylvester Stallone, describes his craft less as performance and more as frequency — a way of tuning himself so that the truth of a character can come through. It’s a mindset shaped long before streaming success, long before Juilliard, and long before audiences began stopping him in public to ask why he wasn’t dressed like his character.
“My voice was always the thing,” Will said during a recent appearance on Black in the Green Room. “I felt like my voice was a frequency that could change people or make them think about themselves.”
That belief was planted early. Raised by a mother who teaches African dance and a father who coached football and ran a barbershop, Will grew up at the intersection of rhythm, discipline, and community. Music came first — rapping and experimenting with sound in middle school — but it was acting that eventually gave his expression structure.
Ironically, it began as punishment.
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Sent to theater class in high school to rein in his energy, Will was handed a monologue and told he’d be competing with students from other schools. Instead of resisting, he leaned in.
“The passion was never an issue,” he said. “I just wanted to craft it.”
That hunger led him to Juilliard, an experience Will describes as both expansive and challenging. While grateful for the technical tools — speech training, classical text, discipline — he also confronted the pressure to code-switch, especially as a Black actor in predominantly white spaces.
The turning point came when his family traveled from South Carolina to see him perform Shakespeare. Afterward, his younger brother told him he sounded “uppity.” The comment landed.
“If my people can’t understand me, what am I doing it for?” Will said. “That changed the game for me.”
That clarity informs everything he does now, including his work on “Tulsa King.” Will sees Tyson Mitchell as a hybrid creation — part transformation, part heightened self — shaped not only by scripts but by music, instinct, and preparation. For each character he plays, he builds playlists and even assigns astrological “big three” placements as a way to ground his choices.
“If Tyson had a theme song,” Will said, “it’d be real boss energy — Jay-Z, Rick Ross vibes. Horns. Brass.”
That musical sensibility didn’t stay theoretical. Will actively pursued having his music featured on the show, creating an evolving demo playlist for the music supervisors and updating it constantly. One of his tracks ultimately appeared in the latest season, marking a meaningful convergence of his two creative worlds.
Mentorship has also played a defining role. Working closely with Stallone, Will describes receiving guidance that extends beyond acting.
“He might pivot from giving fatherly advice to saying, ‘Don’t move your head so much — look with your eyes,’” Will said. “That’s an education you can’t get in a conservatory.”
More recently, Will shared the screen with Samuel L. Jackson in the backdoor pilot “Nola King.” The moment didn’t feel intimidating so much as affirming. “It felt like my uncle at a cookout,” he said.
Despite the momentum, Will remains focused on intention rather than speed. He dreams of working with Denzel Washington, of starring in sports films, and of telling Black love stories that don’t require trauma to feel authentic.
“I want to see two Black people love each other on screen from beginning to end,” he said.
For Jay Will, success isn’t just about visibility. It’s about resonance — making sure that when people hear him, they recognize themselves somewhere in the sound.
From the column: Black in the Green Room By Keith L. Underwood – Follow: @mrkeithlunderwood (IG), @blackinthegreenroom (IG), YouTube, TikTok, and Facebook
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