Ali Larter on the Privilege of Playing Landman's Angela Norris
Taylor Sheridan just might have the Midas touch. Everything he writes turns to gold—erm, I mean television streaming success—starting with the cultural phenomenon Yellowstone, the 3 billion–dollar franchise that spawned two successful prequel series (1883 and 1923) and single-handedly revitalized the Western genre. The writer, producer, director, and actor has created his very own "Taylorverse," which now includes two more mega hits for Paramount+ in Tulsa King and the A-list-packed Landman about the dangerous world of the booming oil industry in West Texas. The latter was just green-lit for a third season after viewership of its premiere episode from season 1 to season 2 increased by over 260%. What's Sheridan's secret sauce? Ali Larter has an idea.
The actress dials into our Zoom call from her luxurious bed in Idaho. After a Landman season 2 press run that consisted of three countries and seven hotels, there's no place like home and no place she'd rather be right now than cozy in her own bed wearing "sweaties"—a very chic white set—and decompressing for the holidays.
As the fiery Angela Norris in Landman, the mother of two and spitfire wife to Billy Bob Thornton's cynical Tommy, Larter is a fan favorite with women everywhere, who praise her character for being ballsy and unapologetically herself. That, Larter tells us, is one of Sheridan's key ingredients, writing incredibly dynamic and authentic women who people all over the world can relate to. It's also the reason the 49-year-old fought so hard for the role. It's not often you see older women as bold and sexually confident as Angela portrayed on-screen. Larter brings both spice and a heart of gold as the show's matriarch.
For our latest installment of Portrait Sessions, we chat with Larter about finding herself in Angela, going toe-to-toe with Thornton, and honing a '90s Calvin Klein aesthetic for her latest press run.
You've talked about really fighting for your role in Landman. Why were you so keen to be a part of the Taylor Sheridan universe?
I think that he's just a brilliant storyteller. There's something that I deeply respect in him for leaving Hollywood and forging his own path and for someone who rolled the dice and was just writing and found a way and a trust and belief in himself to live a life as an artist and tell the stories the way he wanted to tell them. That's incredibly rare and is very hard to do in our industry when there's always so many different people putting in their thoughts and ideas that end up diluting a vision.
With this show and with this character, it was just very exciting for me to play a woman my age who is so bold and so provocative and so broken. He really writes scenes where there's moments of high comedy and borderline satire, and then we have these really deep moments that are very simple. … As an actor, it just stretched me in so many ways, and it's pushed me to the next place. I didn't know that would happen, but I did know that working with talent of that level, you just rise. My scene partner… Working next to Billy most days and everyone—Michelle and Jacob , Demi , Andy , Sam Elliott… Working with him this season was a dream. … He's got the crew that's just the best of the best, and everyone there is just game on and working at the top of their game. It's just been incredible to be in that environment as an actress.
