Landman is now available to stream on Paramount+, and it stars Billy Bob Thornton as Tommy Norris, a landman working in an oil company as he navigates the politics of the wildcat billionaires and tries to take care of the roughnecks. It’s based on the podcast, Boomtown, by Christian Wallace, who also serves as the co-creator along with Taylor Sheridan (Yellowstone). Ali Larter also stars in the series as Angela Norris, Tommy’s ex-wife and the mother of Cooper and Ainsley.
“I am a very intuitive person, and I’m quick to pivot,” Larter tells Nerd Reactor. “So I move very fast through life, and so does [Angela]. So that’s something that I definitely related to. I also feel things very deeply. I’m a very sensitive person, and so Angela is not sensitive, but she’s incredibly emotional. So I was able to kind of tap in that way.
“But, you know, she goes like this in scenes, and it was like the most amazing challenge I could ever dream of, was be able to go on this roller coaster with her and do the work and also make sure you felt her. You know that she was grounded and vulnerable and raw because when she is so over the top and so wild and like, dominating the scene and winning the pool tables and like, you know, having the guys and playing the games, you have to see the other side of it. And that is what’s brilliant. And Taylor’s writing is that not only does he write that side, he writes you in the darkness of the night, when you’re in bed, when you have your fears and your anxieties.”
Norris is someone who’s trying to do his job as a landman, but a wrench is thrown at him at almost every opportunity, whether he has to deal with a drug cartel, deadly accidents at the oil rigs, or family drama.
“It all starts on the page, and Taylor is a brilliant writer,” Larter said. “He just is. And so you read one thing, and with me and Billy figuring out what we wanted to do with these characters and knowing that it’s a television show, it can get old if you’re just kind of fighting with each other, whatever that is. And so we dug deep into the page and figured out who we are and how we wanted to portray this relationship between these two people. And it’s kind of like an odd couple love story, and it’s like very much oil and water. She’s his shot of espresso. She kind of keeps him going. But they also love each other for who they are, and that’s something that I think is very unique on TV.”
Rebecca Falcone is an attorney sent to investigate the accidents happening at Monty’s oil company. She is portrayed by Kayla Wallace, and there’s a moment where she chews out the men going after Norris.
“When I first read it, all I saw was the size and the length of the monolog going, ‘How am I gonna do this?'” Wallace said. “But when you dig in, there’s such a rhythm to Taylor’s writing that it’s just so fun to say. And I had such a great time shaping that with Taylor too. He cares so much, and he spent time with us, going over the scenes and really going into what he saw for them. That scene was a lot of fun to film.”
Landman premieres with two episodes on Sunday, November 17, 2024 exclusively on Paramount+.
Synopsis: Set in the proverbial boomtowns of West Texas, Landman is a modern-day tale of fortune seeking in the world of oil rigs. Based on the notable 11-part podcast “Boomtown,” the series is an upstairs/downstairs story of roughnecks and wildcat billionaires fueling a boom so big, it’s reshaping our climate, our economy and our geopolitics.
