Landman Creator Taylor Sheridan Hits Back Over Criticism Of Ali Larter And Michelle Randolph
Taylor Sheridan continues to use his art to snap back at critics. In reaction to sentiments that he had Landman stars Ali Larter and Michelle Randolph showing too much flesh with their outfits on the Paramount+ drama, Sheridan answered his critics through characters and dialogue on Sunday’s episode.
In one sequence, the character Tommy Norris, played by Billy Bob Thornton, 50, spoke about the risqué ensemble his ex-wife Angela Norris (Larter) was wearing. In the scene, the Varsity Blues beauty, 49,was walking around a house they shared in a small shirt, from which her yellow bra was protruding from.
Tommy got uptight, asking Angela, ‘Could you please put on all your clothes?’ Angela responded, ‘Oh it bothers you to see my body?’ to which Tommy said that it didn’t – ‘but there’s other people around here.’ Angela then asked if T.L., played by legendary actor Sam Elliott, 81, was offended, which Tommy said he wasn’t.
When Randolph’s character Ainsley Norris entered the scene wearing a similar ensemble, Tommy expressed complete and utter defeat over the fashion wars going on under his roof. He said: ‘I give up – I love you both and there’s nothing I can do about that. I f***ing surrender.’
Randolph, a 28-year-old native of Huntington Beach, California, spoke with The Hollywood Reporter last year about her preparation for playing a teenager on the show, which is set in West Texas. ‘I worked with a dialect coach, a movement coach and an acting coach and I just studied like crazy,’ Randolph told the outlet. ‘I had about a year almost to prep for her.
She added, ‘It was incredibly helpful to kind of sit with that character. I worked really hard to find ways to justify her behavior and make a full human out of something that doesn’t always seem like what a 17-year-old would say, but people like that exist.’
Randolph, who was past seen on the Sheridan show 1923, said she ‘wanted to be very careful about the way that Ainsley comes across.’ She added, ‘There’s only so much that I can control, but you also can control a lot as an actor. And just being around Ali and Billy and Jacob [Lofland] and being in Texas really helped create this full person that Ainsley is. ‘She has this free essence about her and she’s wild, and I loved every second of it.’
Sheridan has past used his show and its characters to make statements: In what appeared to be a jab at woke culture, Thornton’s character took a dig at the The View and their politics in the episode broadcast December 14. Thornton’s character Tommy was chatting on the phone with his father T.L., played by Sam Elliott, as the two characters continued to heal following a long estrangement. In one sequence, T.L. called his son on the phone to tell him he didn’t ‘know what to do,’at which point Tommy advised him to ‘do whatever you want to do’ reeling off a list of potential activities his father could take part in.
Tommy told T.L., ‘Read a book or watch TV – watch one of them daytime talk shows, you know, like The View or something. T.L. asked, ‘What’s The View?’ in reference to the ABC roundtable discussion which features Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Ana Navarro, Sunny Hostin, Sara Haines and Alyssa Farrah Griffin.
Tommy described the series as a ‘bunch of pissed off millionaires b****ing about how much they hate millionaires – and [President Donald] Trump and men and you and me. ‘And everybody else they got a bee up their a** about.’ Tommy told his father that he found the show to be ‘pretty funny,’ which left his father a bit confused. Tommy elaborated, ‘Well, it ain’t joke funny, it’s like fart in church funny, you know what I mean?’
His father T.L. responded, ‘That don’t sound funny, either.’ T.L. then told his son his real reason for calling: he had locked himself out of the house. After his son said he might not have entered properly, T.L. pushed back, ‘I’ve been opening doors for 80 f***ing years – I’m pretty sure I’ve mastered the task.’
Elliott is in his first season on the series, which is in its second season. The ensemble cast of the Sheridan series also features Demi Moore, Jon Hamm, Paulina Chávez and Jacob Lofland. Landman can be seen Sundays on Paramount+