‘Landman’ Star Jacob Lofland Gets Candid About His Real-Life Relationship With Michelle Randolph — It Will Surprise You!
Landman Season 2 is in full swing, highlighting the trials and tribulations of working in the oil and gas industry. While the season has been a bit slower on the action front compared to Season 1, I am still really enjoying the show because I am seeing relationships deepen among the characters. We see Billy Bob Thornton’s character soften a little toward his father, T.L., as the family lives in Midland. Tommy Norris and his wife, Angela, are back on track working on their marriage, and Angela is passing their old love on to their son by blessing him with her first engagement ring. As Cooper Norris is making vows to the love of his life, proposing to Ariana Medina, his younger sister, Ainsley, could not be more grossed out with the idea of her brother settling down. Ainsley Norris is too worried about getting her skills ready for the TCU cheer team to think about a serious relationship. But she does take her job of bullying her brother very seriously.
Cooper and Ainsley constantly get into it during their scenes together, fully embodying a brother-sister dynamic filled with bickering, jabs, and mutual distaste. However, during a behind-the-scenes video recapping this week’s episode, Forever Is An Instant, Jacob Lofland shared that his off-screen relationship with Michelle Randolph is far different from their characters’. After revisiting the scene where Cooper picks up Ainsley and Angela from the airport, Ainsley tells her brother that he needs to buy more deodorant. The video then pans to Jacob Lofland, who notes that he and Michelle Randolph have a loving brother-sister relationship off camera.
“When me and Michelle get to work together we’re always fighting. It’s always an argument, but it’s so funny because our dynamics off the set are not like that. We are like brother and sister off set, but we get along tremendously. So it’s like we’re really having to act like to not like each other on screen, and as soon as we cut it’s always like, ‘I’m sorry.’ We have a great time. Those scenes are always fun.”
Lofland and Randolph sure know how to turn it on for the camera, convincing fans that they really do despise each other… But hey, that’s what makes them great actors, right? Maybe by the end of this season, or the already announced Season 3, we can see these two come together at some point. However, I think they have a long way to go before their relationship turns for the better.
Michelle Randolph Says Taylor Sheridan Giving Her Such Different Roles In ‘Landman’ & ‘1923’ Has Helped Her Avoid Typecasting
Taylor Sheridan, the busiest man in Hollywood, is known for creating blockbuster hit series. Since Yellowstone’s inception, Sheridan has been on a roll, producing numerous hit shows, including 1923, 1883, Tulsa King, and, most recently, the oil-and-gas-industry-based show Landman. The shows Sheridan creates are stellar, and the characters and their casting are just as iconic. From Beth Dutton to Angela Norris, John Dutton, and Tommy Norris, Sheridan creates compelling main characters who are strong-willed and powerful. And Sheridan is also known for carrying actors from one series universe to another. Sheridan brought the legendary Sam Elliott into Landman to star as Tommy Norris’ father, T.L., after his stint on 1883 as the wagon master, Shea Brennan.
But Sam Elliott is not the only actor who’s had roles in a Yellowstone spinoff and Landman. The up-and-coming blond bombshell Michelle Randolph has held two roles in a Taylor Sheridan show as well. Of course, many fans know and love Randolph as the bubbly daughter of Tommy Norris, but she also starred as Elizabeth “Liz” Strafford in 1923. Randolph’s 1923 character is far different from Ainsley Norris, showing a much more refined, mature, and resilient character compared to the high schooler living in Midland, Texas. When comparing the two characters, Randolph shared with Yahoo! that she’s grateful to Sheridan for giving her two vastly different roles in the TV series.
Randolph shared that showing her depth as an actress between the two roles has helped her avoid typecasting, keeping her momentum going as she becomes the next “it” actress.
“I’m so lucky because … I feel like it would be a lot easier for me to get typecast. That happens. And playing someone like Ainsley sometimes [that is the fear]. Like, do people think that this is who I am? But I got to film 1923 Season 1, then Landman, then 1923 Season 2, then Landman Season 2, and so I got to kind of bounce between the worlds. I’m incredibly grateful that Taylor trusted me with both those characters.”
So far, Michelle Randolph has done a great job with Ainsley Norris, and although her character plotting might not be as entertaining as Tommy’s, we are starting to see a different side of the “ditzy” high schooler. In fact, Randolph shared that she’s worked hard to add depth to her character.
“I didn’t want Ainsley to be one-dimensional, that was something I was fearful of because I think sometimes it’s easy as the young character,” Randolph said. “I’ve worked a lot at making her likable. … She’s so sincere, and she’s so genuine in what she says, and she loves her family, and so there’s so much more to her, and so much more heart to her, even if she’s had this very limited life experience.”
In the episode highlighting the death of Tommy’s mother, we see a side of Ainsley that highlights how much family means to her. When learning about her father’s troubled childhood, we see compassion we have yet to see from her character, and the hurt her father endured from all those hardships growing up.
“It shows her heart, those moments. They are few and far between, but those are some of my favorite ones, because I think it just brings a groundedness to Ainsley that is needed. Because we often see her … running around with her mom, and she’s having fun, and she’s not thinking, and she says what’s on her mind. And it’s like, you know, it’s really human for her to care what happened to her dad. I hope that I get more of those kinds of scenes.”
I hope we see more of this side of Randolph’s character as the season progresses. I really enjoy Ainsley’s character as she and Angela provide some comedic relief to the show, but it’s clear that there is a vision for how Ainsley will grow, and I’m excited to see that unfold.
