Billy Bob Thornton Credits Taylor Sheridan’s Success to Stories Audiences Don’t Get With “Superhero Things”
As Taylor Sheridan continues to crank out TV shows at breakneck speed, he has enlisted Billy Bob Thornton as his latest leading man for new series Landman.
The Paramount+ series is set within the world of oil rigs in West Texas and stars Thornton as Tommy Norris, a crisis executive at an oil company. Thornton previously had a small role on Sheridan’s series 1883, which helped spark the idea of his own series.
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“I went to the [1883] premiere in Las Vegas, and after that we had a dinner and Taylor sat next to me and he said, ‘Listen, I’ve got a thing I’m going to write around you. It’s called Landman, it takes place in the oil business, and I’m going to write it in your voice because I think I’ve known you long enough now to write in your voice,'” Thornton recalled to The Hollywood Reporter when speaking at Landman‘s L.A. premiere on Tuesday. “And when I read the first script I was like, ‘Wow, you did, didn’t you?’ Because I read it and was like, ‘Yeah, that’s kind of me if I were a landman.’ So, it was pretty awesome.”
The star said he and Sheridan had “a very easy collaboration,” as they were raised in a similar way and understood each other well. He also weighed in on the creator’s string of TV successes, including Yellowstone — which kicked off its possibly final-season run on Sunday with its biggest ratings yet — as well as the currently airing Lioness, along with 1883, 1923, Tulsa King and Mayor of Kingstown. (Sheridan, meanwhile, made acting appearances in the premiere of both Yellowstone and Lioness.)
“People are hungry for human stories,” Thornton said. “These days in the theaters, it’s mainly event movies and superhero things and animated stuff and all that; there are a few human stories to come through. But these things are like a 10-hour movie that explore human beings. And I think people are hungry for that and I think that’s why they relate to Taylor’s stuff.”
He jokingly added that after Sheridan’s reputation of everything he touches turning to gold, “Please don’t let me be the one that makes it turn to pewter!”
Landman also stars Jon Hamm, Demi Moore and Ali Larter, the latter of whom called her character “the opportunity of a lifetime” and credited Sheridan for “really reimagining the American West on television. He has a way of writing incredibly dynamic women and he also makes space within his stories to show their flaws and their vulnerabilities.”
Larter, who plays Thornton’s character’s ex-wife Angela, called the actor “an absolute GOAT” and noted, “when you read something as a television show, you have to think and hope that it’s going to go on for seasons and seasons, so what is that story that is really authentic and true and has some space to breathe and grow? So for us, it was not just fighting and not just sparring with each other; how do we find the love and the humor within this?”
Landman premieres its first two episodes Sunday on Paramount+.
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