Interview: Billy Bob Thornton Digs Deep in Paramount+’s Hit Series ‘Landman’

In the vast, unforgiving landscapes of West Texas, where fortunes are drilled from the earth and morality often comes second to money, Landman plants its flag as the latest gritty drama from Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan. At the heart of this high-stakes tale is veteran actor Billy Bob Thornton, who plays Tommy Norris, a crisis manager navigating the volatile terrain of the oil industry, as well as tackling personal relationships.

For Thornton, whose career spans Oscar-winning screenwriting and unforgettable performances in films like Sling Blade, A Simple Plan, and The Man Who Wasn’t There, Landman offers something raw and gritty. It’s not just about oil—it’s about power, legacy, and the compromises we make to survive. Fresh off the show’s first season success and with a second season on the way, Thornton chatted with us to discuss what drew him to the project, how his character walks the tightrope of every middleman’s dilemma, and what it’s like collaborating again with Sheridan after 1883.

Thanks for taking the time to talk to us. Congratulations on the success of the show, first of all. And secondly, congratulations on the second season pickup.

Well, thank you very much. We’re very, very proud and just so humbled by the response that we’ve had for the show. We thought it was going to be successful, but we didn’t know it was going to blow up like this. So, we’re pretty happy.

What intrigued you most about the script, and what ultimately convinced you to take on the role?

Well, when Taylor first told me about it, he said, “I’m writing something with you in mind, I’m writing it in your voice.” He told me essentially what the show was about and what the character was all about, and it just intrigued me because you don’t get a look behind the curtain of the oil business very often. The last one I remember where you kind of saw it was Giant with Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor. I was telling a journalist one day that it’s kind of like Giant with cursing. And of course, you had Dallas, but that was more of a nighttime soap. But this really gets into the nitty gritty of what this world is and how it affects the people in it and around it. So that really intrigued me.

How would you describe Tommy, and what parts of his background and personality were most compelling for you to explore?

Well, I think one of the most interesting things in season one was the fact that his old friend is the one who kind of went and became a rich guy, and Tommy now is working for him. I thought that was an interesting dynamic. It’s kind of weird, but I think Tommy is a guy who’s driven by the only thing he knows. It’s like, “I have to make it in this world because it’s what I know.” So, he’s driven to be a success in it, not to buy houses and be wealthy. Some people have these obsessive personalities. I’ve got one myself. I think he doesn’t want to be a failure. He’s just hell bent on making things work out OK. As much as he complains about the chaos, there’s something about the chaos that he needs somehow.

It seems like Tommy’s in middle management in every aspect of his life, whether it’s his actual job, his family, or even with the cartel and the military. He’s always in the middle. I wonder if that informed your performance at all.

Oh, it absolutely did. Like you said, he’s in between everybody. At home, he’s certainly not running the show. He lives in a circus. I think he just cleans up the elephant tents at home. But then in his job of a landman, he’s in between the oil company, the ownership, and the people out in the field. So, he’s a guy who wants to make money for his boss, and at the same time, he wants to protect the guys out in the fields doing this highly dangerous job.

Tommy kind of has everything. He’s got cynicism, he has some joy. He’s a guy trying to get better. He’ trying to not drink, he’s trying to make a stab at it again with his ex, he’s trying to be a father, he’s trying to protect the people in the oil field, and he’s trying to make money for his boss, so he’s just got the weight of the world on his shoulders. So, yeah, I was aware that Tommy’s stuck in the middle of this circus.

Have you heard from any landmen or oil workers, and if so, what has been the response?

Yeah, I think they’re just happy to be represented. The show doesn’t really have an agenda. It’s just showing what happens. It’s not ‘yay oil or boo oil.’ It’s just ‘this is the way it works in the oil business.’ It’s like Goodfellas, it’s not like they’re saying, “Hey, aren’t mobsters really cool, and isn’t murder excellent?” But people watch it because it’s just a world you don’t get to see that often. It’s interesting to see this world and how it operates.

So, yes, oilmen have come up to me, and for the most part, the only thing I ever get from them is, “Landman’s my favorite show,” but every now and then they’ll say, “Well, you’d never use an X 14 wrench on that kind of gasket, or whatever.” I’m like, “Look, I don’t write it,” and they’ll say, “Oh no, you weren’t using the wrong wrench, it was another guy.” Anytime you’re doing a movie about a profession, somebody is always going to say something, I’m surprised nobody came up to me after Bad Santa and said, “Well, I’m a mall Santa, you would never have your beard off.”

You’ve been at this for a while now. I’m curious what you think you are bringing to this role that you wouldn’t have brought to it earlier in your career?

That’s an interesting question; one I’ve never been asked about. That’s really interesting. What did I bring to it now that I wouldn’t have? Probably a swagger. There is a certain confidence in this character, even though he’s a mess and his life’s a mess. It’s not like he backed down from these cartel guys, and I think early in my career, I might have played Tommy a little bit more afraid. I think Tommy, in a lot of ways, is fearless. He’s probably more afraid of his wife, he is of anybody else. But I would say that would be the main thing.

This is not your first time working with Taylor. You worked with him in 1883, but how was it working with him on this project?

Well, it was great. Taylor wrote some wonderful scripts, and his writing is pretty tight, but Taylor has actually been very loose with me. There’s not a lot of improvisation on his stuff. As a matter of fact, I’d say Taylor and the Coen brothers, who I worked with a couple of times, they’ve had scripts that you stuck to more than anybody I’ve ever worked with. But with me, Taylor said, “Look, you’re a writer, you’re a director. You get this stuff. We’re partners in this.” So, every now and then, I’ll throw something in there, and if he likes it, he keeps it. But his writing is so good that I rarely do anything outside of it.

I want to talk about the cast a little bit.  You’ve got a pretty stacked cast. I had the opportunity to interview Jacob around eight years ago when he was this young up-and-coming actor, so I was really happy to see him pop up in this. And I’ve interviewed Ail as well, and she was great. Can you talk about working with the cast in this project?

You know, the great thing about these streaming shows as opposed to a movie, is when you’re on a movie, you’re there for a couple, three months, whatever it is and, and you can kind of get close to the crew or the cast, but then it’s over and you usually lose touch with everyone. But since this is an ongoing thing, we’ve actually become almost like a family. Ali [Larter] and I will go out somewhere, and of course, she picks the restaurant, and she tells me what I need to wear. “Don’t look like a bum in there,” you know, stuff like that, which I usually do, by the way. So, we’ve gotten really close. Ali and I have become really good friends. And I have a real father-daughter relationship with Michelle [Randolph], because in real life, I have a 20-year-old daughter who’s actually in college now…

So do I.

So, you know. Fathers and daughters, you know how that goes.

I can’t tell you how much I relate to your character and his relationship with his daughter. A lot of parallels.

And you would not want to hear some of that stuff from your daughter, right?

No, not at all!

Jacob [Lofland] and I actually grew up about an hour and a half from each other in Arkansas, obviously at different times. I moved to Houston, Texas after school, and then to LA, but Jacob’s still there, and as soon as I met him, I recognized him as the kid down the block that I knew growing up. It always sounds kind of trite to say we’ve really become a family, but it’s the truth. There’s no other way to put it, really. Plus, having the opportunity to work with people that I’ve known for a long time but hadn’t really worked with. I’d worked with Demi {Moore]. I had a couple of scenes in a movie she did back in ‘89 or something, and I did three movies with Bruce [Willis], so she would always bring the kids to the set and visit, so I’ve known her over the years. But now we get a chance to actually do stuff together, it’s great, and the same goes with Sam Elliott. I’ve known him since the mid-’80s, and we’ve done a couple of things together, but just a couple of scenes, so to have him around because he’s a hero of mine. I love him. And Andy Garcia and I’ve known each other for a long, long time, but never worked together until now, so that’s been a real pleasure. I’ve got these incoming younger people I’m working with that I didn’t know beforehand, and then the veterans who I’ve known for years and didn’t work with that much, and so it’s all come together in a really nice way.

I want to ask you about the last line of the first season, “They shoot coyotes around here.”  It’s a pretty prolific line. I was wondering if you could expand on that a little bit and talk about what it meant to your character.

Well, there are two coyote scenes. There’s one earlier in the episode, too. There were several lines of dialogue in the first coyote scene to myself and then to a neighbor, and Taylor and I talked it over one night, and we decided it’s this scene should have no dialogue, because you’re kind of putting a hat on a hat, you know what I mean? It’s more important to let that come out in the eyes and in the thoughts than it is in dialogue. To me, and I think Taylor agrees with this in terms of what he meant when he wrote it, the coyote is like, it’s symbolic to me. It’s a metaphor. I think Tommy looks at this coyote and thinks, “Am I the coyote or is the coyote going to eat me? Am I going to kill a coyote or is the coyote going to kill me? Which one am I in this?” And I think he identified with this coyote in some weird way, just like seeing this coyote staring at him. It’s like, “What’s your part in this?” I think Tommy saw himself in the coyote, and I think he also saw his potential future or maybe demise in this coyote.

Can you give us any idea what we can expect out of season two?

Well, we’ve been shooting for about a month and a half, and I am loving it. The relationships are getting even more developed, and the cast is gelling even more. It just seems more and more real every day, so I’m very, very happy with it. It deals with the relationships a lot this year, so I’m very happy about that.

Well, congratulations again. Thanks again for taking the time, and good luck.

All right. Take care of your daughter, I’ll take care of mine.

Will do

Take care.

You can watch our full interview with Billy Bob Thornton below.

Season one of Landman is currently streaming on Paramount+.