Warning: Mild SPOILERS lie ahead for Landman season 2!Taylor Sheridan’s look at the oil industry is back with Landman season 2, and Billy Bob Thornton’s Tommy is dealing with a number of new family challenges. The latest season of the neo-Western drama picks up a few months after the prior finale, as Tommy works with Demi Moore’s Cami Miller to help salvage and maintain M-Tex’s reputation after the death of Jon Hamm’s Monty.
On the flip side, Tommy’s household dealings find themselves in another rollercoaster situation in Landman season 2, with his teenage daughter Ainsley planning to go to college at TCU in Fort Worth, his sort-of-ex-wife Angela wanting to move there with her, and his son Cooper taking his settlement money and opening new oil drills. Even further complicated is the news that his mother has died, forcing him to reconnect with his estranged father, Sam Elliott’s T.L.
In honor of its return, ScreenRant interviewed Ali Larter, Michelle Randolph, Jacob Lofland, Paulina Chávez, Kayla Wallace, Colm Feore, Mark Collie, Mustafa Speaks and Christian Wallace to discuss Landman season 2. Looking at the arcs of the various Norris family members this season, Lofland began by discussing Cooper’s efforts to carve his own path apart from his father in the oil industry, describing it as being “so much fun” to get to see his character gain a little ground in success.
Comparing his character’s journey to the way he is “growing in this career“, Lofland explained that Cooper is ultimately trying to “blossom” as he opens his own drills and begins to find some success with striking oil. Denoting the widely relatable core to this story, the Landman star opined that it doesn’t matter what business someone is in, as someone dedicated to their craft will “give all you can” to succeed:
Jacob Lofland: A lot of times you might step into something a little quicker than you should because you’re anticipating, and then you go, “Okay, don’t do that again. It leads to these problems.” So it’s really him growing up this season and learning what it’s going to take to get what he’s wanting out of his dream.
However, while Cooper finds himself gaining some success, his family finds themselves getting into some tricky situations. For starters, Tommy isn’t the only one who finds themselves interacting with Sam Elliott’s T.L. this season, as Cooper will also get some time in with his on-screen grandpa, which Lofland describes as being a “very new” experience for his character, particularly as they hadn’t “spent a whole lot of time around each other” prior to season 2.
As for what to expect from Cooper and T.L.’s dynamic going into the rest of the season, Lofland teased that his character will again serve as something of a surrogate for the audience going into the rest of Landman season 2, as he will be “getting to learn” what actually happened between his father and grandfather. Coining the experience as a “ride-along thing“, Lofland expressed his excitement for audiences to see more of their family history.
Another bit of Norris family history that Landman has yet to properly explore is what the root of the heated relationship is between Cooper and his sister, Michelle Randolph’s Ainsley. When asked about this unknown sibling history, Randolph — who can also be seen in the near future as part of the Scream 7 cast — agreed with fans’ theories that their animosity is “more than just typical sibling rivalry“, albeit admitted that neither she nor Lofland “know that something happened yet“:
Michelle Randolph: I do think that they’re so different from one another and Cooper, everything that he is, Ainsley is the opposite. They are each other’s mirrors, and so I think there’s also some jealousy in there. I don’t know if you guys have noticed, but every single time Cooper gets any attention, Ainsley has a problem with it. So I’m really hoping we get a little bit more information as to why they hate each other so much.
Randolph also admitted that Ainsley “lives in a little bubble” created by Larter’s Angela, one largely devoid of dealing with the hardships of real life, thus creating a sense of confusion in her about why Cooper is “just so grumpy all the time“. The star also goes on to admit she isn’t sure “if Ainsley will (ever) break out of that” disconnect between their outlooks on the world.
Larter went on to chime in with her own thoughts on Ainsley and Cooper’s conflict-heavy relationship, feeling that it’s not just about a specific event in the past between the pair, but also “the amount of attention that I’ve placed on our daughter“. Comparing her role of Angela to being a mother of two in real life, the star admitted that putting “a little bit more energy into one can cause a rift” between the siblings. This also led to the way she plays their scenes together, as it’s important to not “give energy when your kids are fighting” at the risk of feeding into their energy.
Ali Larter: You just kind of have to let it play off. “It’s no big deal, it’s no big deal.” Until something really bad happens, and then you’ve got to cut it. So I feel like that’s where I see Angela just with the “Oh, they’re so cute. Just her little babies.”
In addition to having to wrangle in her children, Angela and Tommy also find themselves in another unique challenge to their relationship, as the former looks to move to Fort Worth, while the latter, both busy with his new M-Tex Oil responsibilities and stuck in his ways, wants to remain in the West Texas countryside. Even as this builds to some of the same tensions the pair have faced in the past, both continue to try and keep their second effort at a relationship on a healthy track.
Reflecting on this journey, Larter expressed that Tommy and Angela “have an incredible shared history together“, pointing out how their first marriage was challenged by the “bust and boom within the oil business“, particularly since the former presented them with some real hardships. However, even as Tommy found himself turning to alcohol for support, and Angela had “no way to support her family“, she still felt that they “were really true loves to each other“.
As such, when some years passed and the two found themselves spending more time with each other for Ainsley’s sake, “it softens you a little bit” and gave them both a realization of “what you want from your life“. Though Tommy still comes with some challenges in his actions and behavior, Larter feels that Angela can now focus more on just giving their children a healthy upbringing:
Ali Larter: When I think about Angela leaving behind a life of luxury and money and all the luxuries in life to go back to this man and to heal her family, it’s really beautiful and that they’re kind of like two wrongs that make a right. There’s just an understanding of the way that they can be a little crass and a little kind of caustic with each other, but there is an undeniable love and chemistry that kind of transcends it all.
Everything Else We Learned About Landman Season 2 From The Cast & Creator Christian Wallace
ScreenRant: Mark, you co-produced some songs for the original Landman soundtrack alongside Billy Bob Thornton.
Mark Collie: We did. We wrote a couple of tunes. Yeah.
ScreenRant: Amazing. Can you talk to me about that experience?
Mark Collie: Well, I started making music when I was like 12 years old. Songwriting is how I got into the entertainment business. In my late teens, I started writing songs for country singers in Nashville and that led me to record making. Billy Bob, funny story, I used to record muscle shows in Alabama initially, and 10 or 15 years later I found out that Billy Bob was down there making a record too. He came over there from Arkansas. He was in a rock band. I was in a country band. We never knew each other. We walked the same paths. Ultimately, songwriting came natural to me and to him, and we were sitting there reading the script, and we started a song called Midland After Midnight, and now Flatland Calvary cut it. Taylor loved the song and Taylor’s a songwriter too, and I could talk about songwriting forever. I’m going to stop, but it was a blast and something Billy and I did kind of natural.
ScreenRant: Andy Garcia has a more pronounced role here in season 2, and Boss is someone who I feel like those run-ins are going to be pretty pronounced, as well. What can you tease about how Andy Garcia’s role in this series is going to impact Boss going forward?
Mustafa Speaks: Well, Andy Garcia, just him, his brand, he brings something so dynamic to any project that he’s in and what he’s going to do this season is just increasing the stakes of everything that Tommy touches. How that’s going to affect Boss, you’ll see, because there’s always a trickle-down effect, particularly how Boss and Tommy have their relationship. So what you’ll see is just more intensity from everybody.
ScreenRant: We’ve got a lot to look forward to this season. You left on a pretty big cliffhanger, Jon Hamm’s Monty being killed off. That void of his character in the Landman world, how is that being filled in season 2?
Christian Wallace: Well, when you take one player off the chess board, that opens up opportunities for another. We get to see Cammie, his wife, played by Demi, just step into that role, and now she’s swimming with the sharks and has to figure it all out. And so that is one of the fun things about this season is watching her come into her own.
ScreenRant: And having a natural death too, that he wasn’t killed in some grandiose way. What was that decision like?
Christian Wallace: Yeah, I mean, I think we’re hewing to reality in a lot of instances, in a lot of ways in this show, and it makes sense that he had a really high-stress job that is not great for the old ticker, and so that’s life. There’s a lot of just life in this show and yeah, it leaves a hole though, for sure.
ScreenRant: That day-to-day largely takes place in the Norris family home. As someone who worked from home for two and a half years, I can’t stand it. I need an office. I need that separation of work from home. Are you guys going to get an office this season?
Colm Feore: But when you say Norris family home, that’s a misnomer. It’s the M-Tex’s rental house. So the only people who belong in that house are Billy Bob, me and James Jordan. We’re the only people who belong in that house. Everybody else is visiting. They’re either a guest or they’re family, or they’re sort of family, formerly married and now divorced, all of this complexity. And when this one (points to Kayla) visits and justifiably says, “This is no way to run an operation, what is this?” We don’t have an answer for that. And every time I ask Billy Bob, Tommy, “Can you please make a decision? Get these people home,” it all gets more complicated. I think that’s part of the point.
Kayla Wallace: I mean, from Rebecca’s point of view, we’ve got Ainsley doing cheer routines, and she’s wearing —
Colm Feore: Nothing.
Kayla Wallace: Outfits that are next to nothing because she’s a cheerleader, and she’s practicing her routine, but that’s no place to have an office. I think Rebecca’s goal, at the end of the day, is always to get the job done. So she’s going to go there and do the meeting, but it doesn’t mean she won’t be pissed off about it, but it’s totally not professional. And she knows that. And if she could have her own office, yes she would.
Colm Feore: But the beauty of the situation is that, because they’re always under duress and the stress of this distraction-filled household, we are allowed to reveal more of the characters’ coping mechanisms and therefore more about who they actually are and how they cope well, or in some cases not well at all. I think that’s fun. I think it’s a very discreet method of storytelling. So before you know it, you go, “Oh, I know that guy.”
Kayla Wallace: I’m excited for people to see where our characters’ stories go.
Be sure to dive into some of our other Landman season 2 coverage with:
New episodes of Landman season 2 air Sundays on Paramount+.
- Release Date
- November 17, 2024
- Writers
- Taylor Sheridan, Christian Wallace
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Billy Bob Thornton
Tommy Norris
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