‘Landman’ Star Billy Bob Thornton on Tommy’s New Job and How That Big Cameo Sets Up Season 2
Note: The following story contains spoilers from “Landman” Episode 10.
In its first season, Taylor Sheridan’s “Landman” struck oil.
The show debuted to 14.6 million viewers across Paramount+ and Paramount Network, where it also aired. It was the biggest domestic premiere ever for Paramount+ when you factor in the first three days of viewing and the biggest premiere on the streaming platform in two years. The show just wrapped up its first season with a deluxe 80-minute finale that sees many of its plotlines coalesce and crescendo. We don’t have numbers yet, but it’s safe to say that it’s going to be big. Like geyser-of-black-tar-gushing-out-of-a-Texas-well big.
Even “Landman” star Billy Bob Thornton was surprised by the response to the show. “I’ve got to tell you, I’ve never seen a reaction like this. I was in some iconic movies over the years, and you get that from people when you’re in public, but this one here, it’s become some kind of phenomenon,” Thornton said, sounding genuinely amazed. “I can’t go anywhere. And even people that you wouldn’t expect to be people who would watch the show, they love it and they quote some of my lines. A lot of my stuff’s on TikTok.”
And there will certainly be stuff from the finale that winds up on TikTok. If you haven’t seen the final, high octane installment of “Landman,” based on the nonfiction Texas Monthly podcast by Christian Wallace, we suggest you return once you have watched.
Now, let’s get into “Crumbs of Hope,” which, like the rest of the season, was written by Sheridan himself.
Still there?
Okay. “Crumbs of Hope” sees Thornton’s Tommy Norris take over the oil business (the fictional M-Tex) from his dying boss Monty Miller (played by Jon Hamm). While it isn’t explicitly stated that Monty is dead at the end of the episode, it’s heavily implied, with a wordless moment where his wife Cami (Demi Moore) is crying over him in the hospital. By the end of the episode, Tommy has already been installed in his new job.
We wondered how early Thornton knew about Tommy’s arc, especially since Sheridan is a creator not exactly known for keeping his actors in the loop.
“By the time we started shooting, I had everything, and Taylor and I talked extensively about it. Taylor keeps things to himself until it’s time to tell you but for the first season, all of a sudden, I have two scripts, and they were brilliant. We talked on the phone about just some of the lines that were funny that we started laughing about on the phone,” Thornton said. “Then after I had four or five scripts, and he would say, ‘Oh, you just wait on this next one.’ And then I would see that one, as they were doubled out. I was surprised to a degree, but then had talked to him fairly extensively where it was headed.”
Thornton said that he wasn’t surprised that his character had such an insane arc, going from a fixer for the oil company to the man in charge of it. (The season also started and ended with him getting tied to a chair by some bad cartel dudes.) He said the speed and density of the storytelling is “his MO.” “It really works that way. Essentially, he wrote a 10-hour movie. You have to have that first, second and third act within the structure of ta 10-episode thing. And for an actor, I think it serves us better in a lot of ways, than movies,” Thornton said. “There obviously have been many brilliant movies over the years, but and this, you get to live with these people for a long time and actually watch their life unfold. There’s no shortcuts. I think he did a brilliant job, and we were real lucky to be able to be the actors to tell the story for him.”
One of those actors, introduced in the final moments of the finale, is Andy Garcia, who plays Galino, the leader of a rival cartel who saves Tommy’s life. The catch, of course, is that now Tommy has to deal with Galino from now on. It sets up an fascinating dynamic, which will undoubtedly play out over the as-yet-unannounced second season, between Tommy, Cami and Galino. Watching those three heavyweights will be very special.
“These are people that I’ve known for a long time. I’ve known Andy for years and years and years. I’ve known Demi since ‘89 or ‘90 and so. And there you have the three veterans together in this weird little triangle. I think that’s a very interesting thing,” Thornton teased. “It was so organic working with both of them because we have all been around for so long and have been in pretty intense situations in motion pictures. And so we fell into it pretty organically. If there is a season two [note: Thornton winked at this point], then I figure both of them will figure much more into the story.”
As Tommy assumes control of the company, Thornton got to lay out some extremely dense monologues about fracking, the oil company, its relationship to the cartels and more. And it just rolls off Thornton’s tongue, like instead of acting in countless movies and TV shows, he has been a Texas oilman for all these years. (For the record, Thornton was born in Arkansas.)
Thornton consulted with Wallace, to make sure he was saying the lingo for real. “I’m as dumb as a bag of hair, seriously, but I’ve always had a knack for being able to learn long monologues. I’m really dyslexic and I have OCD and anxiety disorder, all these things. And somehow they actually are a help in some ways, in terms of that kind of stuff,” Thornton said. It wasn’t about memorization for the actor. “It’s about learning what it means. And once you know what it means, it makes the dialogue flow easier. In other words, I don’t want to just be someone who’s reciting lines; you want to be realistic in the scene. If I’m talking to you in a scene and I say something to you, I need to know what that means for you to believe it and for the audience to believe it.”
Of course, there’s one bit of dialogue that Thornton knew would be talked about. It’s the scene that involved Michelle Randolph, as his teenage daughter Ainsley. She tells him about the “rule” she has with her dimwitted boyfriend — that he’s allowed to finish anywhere on her, but not in her. Thornton’s line right after — and his absolutely perfect deliver of that line — that he’s “going to go get a Dr. Pepper,” is what makes the exchange so special and so funny. Sheridan warned him ahead of time that the exchange would make Thornton laugh and might give him a heart palpitation or two.
“One of the first things Taylor told he told me, when he sent me the first couple of scripts. He actually said, ‘There’s a line in here, and you’re going you’re going to think this is the greatest thing on earth.’ He said, ‘You’re going to laugh your ass off and you’re going to call me when you read that line before you even finish the script.’ Sure enough, I got to that line and I called, and I said, ‘Dr Pepper, right?’ And he said, ‘Of course, I knew it. I knew that was going to be your favorite thing in there.’ I mean, my favorite thing as a reader, my least favorite as a father,” Thornton said. “It’s like I’ve just been shot with a stun gun. I can’t react at all. What are you going to say? ‘I’ll have a Dr Pepper.’”
As for where Tommy will be in a potential season 2, Thornton teases both his character’s new responsibilities, alongside his commitment to taking care of business the old fashioned way.
“I’m sure Tommy is doing it because he knows he owes a debt to his old friend and boss, yeah. And for the sake of a company that he’s kept going for a long time. I think Tommy’s driven to make it a success, but at the same time, scared shitless right now, to take this on, and probably does not want to do it,” Thornton said. “He does not want to take any kind of an executive position. And I got a feeling, if there were a season 2 [another wink] that that he’s going to drag a lot of the landman into it, I don’t think the landman in Tommy is going away. I think he’s probably going to be doing both jobs.”
All episodes of “Landman” are now streaming on Paramount+.
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