‘Landman’s Billy Bob Thornton On The Drama’s Authenticity, The Reviews & Whether Ali Larter’s Role Is Cartoonish: “Women Like Her Exist”

Lynette Rice
·7-min read

Billy Bob Thornton on Monday earned his seventh Golden Globe nomination for playing the title role in Landman, Taylor Sheridan’s deceptively funny but equally grim series on Paramount+ about the oil business that’s based on “Boomtown” podcast from Imperative Entertainment and Texas Monthly.

Here, Thornton talks about how the role of Tommy Norris was custom made for him by Taylor Sheridan, and how he’s become a bit of a folk hero among the real life landmen of Texas. The series just dropped its fifth episode on Sunday; there are 10 episodes in all for the first season.

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DEADLINE Make no doubt about it, this is your show. When Taylor pitched this to you, did he say this is your story? Tommy’s story?

BILLY BOB THORNTON Well, actually he did. I had done a cameo for Taylor in 1883. I played the Marshal of Fort Worth and had a couple of scenes with my old buddies, Sam Elliott and Tim McGraw. When they had the premiere of that in Las Vegas, I sat with Taylor at the dinner and he said, ‘listen, I’m writing this show called Landman. You’re the landman. I’m going to write it in your voice.’ It was still a couple of years before we did the show because Taylor started writing it, and it interested me because you don’t really see the oil industry from the inside and you don’t see the people out there in the fields in movies very often. Giant was one of my favorite movies. So I was intrigued to be able to look into this world. But then the strikes happened so Taylor had to lay off for a while. But the ones he sent me, it’s like, wow, he did kind of get my voice. If I were a landman, it’d be kind of like that.

DEADLINE Is that what these men are actually called? The men that do what Tommy does in the drama?

THORNTON Oh yes, that’s real. I have met them. When I was down there in Fort Worth, if you hang out in the restaurants and the bars, eventually you’re going to meet a land man. And I met some landmen who were older and retired. I would just get in conversations with ’em. I think that’s the best way to get stuff out of people. Just talk to ’em normally without saying, ‘Hey, will you tell me how to do this or that?’ And Christian Wallace [who did the podcast] was on the set all the time, so I had these him to ask because audiences aren’t stupid. Anytime I didn’t know what some of the oil business jargon meant, I would just go and ask.

DEADLINE You have an incredible speech earlier in the season about fossil fuels versus alternative energy sources. It was eye opening, so I wondered whether Taylor was getting on a soapbox.

THORNTON Well, no. I think it’s just that you get slammed so much for things that finally it’s like, well, what’s wrong with me saying this? I don’t think he was getting on a soapbox. There’s another side to this, and here’s what it is. People more so these days than ever watch movies or TV or listen to music and read novels from the point of view of their own agenda. I mean, if you’re doing a movie about a serial killer and the guy plays an amazing serial killer, it’s not like they’re saying we’re promoting serial killers. We’re just showing you a piece of entertainment that’s supposed to move you in some way or entertain you in some way. I think you just have to watch this as a thing that presents to you how it works in the oil business. That speech stirred up controversy, which of course is always good for a piece of entertainment in our world. It stirred up controversy because some people said, those statistics aren’t right. And then some other PhD says, well, actually they are. So it starts a conversation, which I think is always a good thing.

DEADLINE When you met those real life landmen, did they seem fearless? Tommy certainly seems fearless.

THORNTON Yeah, I think if you’re in that world, it’s a dangerous business. You understand the risk involved. My character obviously came up doing more menial jobs in this. So he is been there. He knows how this works, and now suddenly he’s like the foreman between the guy that owns the oil company and the people who work in the oil fields. There’s not even much time to think in the job of being a landman. You’re on the move all the time. There’s always a problem to solve because he is a fixer really. You develop an obsession with being successful. I think he’s driven and doesn’t really think about that much, though I think he’s a bit fatalistic about it.

DEADLINE Did you expect this would be so funny?

THORNTON Well, I’ve got to say, when I started reading the scripts, I was laughing out loud sometimes. We added a few things as we went along. But one of my favorite parts about this is Tommy’s sense of humor in the midst of all this danger and trouble and drama. The guy is just naturally funny when he wants to be. I mean, it’s a dark sense of humor, but he is definitely funny.

DEADLINE Tommy drinks Michelob Ultra. Was that in the script?

THORNTON Yes, it was always there. It’s light beer. I think it’s like something like 4.5% alcohol or something. Essentially, Tommy said h quit drinking, so he’ll stick to beer. I think what he’s really saying is, look, I used to drink like a gallon of whiskey a day. To me, this is not drinking, even though it does have alcohol.

DEADLINE Given the size of your role, were you on set every day?

THORNTON I was there five months, and there was one week when I had most of the week off.v I didn’t even know what to do with myself. But the elements … the weather, the terrain … those are really characters in this thing. And they actually infiltrate you as an actor. I never get the movies in Hawaii. I don’t know what they have against me, but I don’t ever have pineapple and papaya at lunch served by some Hulu person. That doesn’t happen to me. I’m always in upper Wisconsin or Canada or something in the winter or in Texas in 110 degree heat and humidity.

DEADLINE Have you gotten feedback from those real-life landmen? Are they happy that you’re making their job sexy?

THORNTON They love it. I mean, absolutely love it. And the friends that I know, or at least acquaintances that I have who work in or around the oil business have all texted me saying, dude, this is so authentic. It reminded me of my childhood. There are a couple of country singers I know who worked in the oil fields. They both texted me and said, this totally reminded me of growing up. I could taste the dust in West Texas and all this kind of stuff. And they’re all saying it’s very authentic.

DEADLINE Can you tease where things are going in the season? Who is going to get Tommy first, the drug dealers or Ali Larter’s character Angela?

THORNTON They’re both definitely trying.

DEADLINE Tommy’s marriage is certainly interesting.

THORNTON Taylor’s had a hard way to go with the critics over the years. I mean, he’s such a powerful guy. It’s easy to knock him down. But he’s had the best reviews he’s ever had for Landman. Some of them mentioned the women and how Ali’s character may be a little cartoonish or whatever. And I got to tell you, I was raised down there in Arkansas and Texas, and women like Ali exist. It’s hard to look that good, but some of ’em do. I mean, there are women around that Dallas-Fort Worth area who look like models, and they’re just like elbows and eyebrows every minute.

DEADLINE Before I go, it was great seeing you on The Kelly Clarkson Show. I enjoyed hearing how you only wear women’s jeans.

THORNTON I’m wearing them right now. They fit better.

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