Billy Bob Thornton and Sam Elliott break down their 'very heavy' father-son dynamic in “Landman” season 2
- - Billy Bob Thornton and Sam Elliott break down their 'very heavy' father-son dynamic in “Landman” season 2
Emlyn TravisDecember 30, 2025 at 8:30 AM
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Emerson Miller/Paramount+
Billy Bob Thornton as Tommy and Sam Elliott as T.L. on 'Landman'
Billy Bob Thornton and Sam Elliott are opening up about their “very heavy” father-son dynamic in Landman season 2.
The actors, who previously shared the screen in the 1993 Western Tombstone and on series co-creator Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone spinoff 1883, tell Entertainment Weekly that Tommy (Thornton) and T.L. (Elliott) will need to dig deep if they hope to strike gold and save their fraught relationship.
“In any family, if there's a history that's been difficult and you try to come back together, it's hard to shed a lot of it,” Thornton admits. “But that gives us somewhere to go in this show. One wart’s easy to get rid of — when you got two or three dozens, it’s a little more difficult.”
Tommy begrudgingly reconnects with his absent father following the death of his abusive mom Dorothy at the beginning of season 2. Thornton shares that while the pair have “a couple of main points of contention” that keep them at odds with one another, the love between them hasn’t disappeared.
Emerson Miller/Paramount+
Jacob Lofland as Cooper Norris, Billy Bob Thornton as Tommy Norris, and Sam Elliott as T.L. Norris on 'Landman'
“Family stuff, it goes deep and it sticks in your soul. It's a very heavy relationship,” he says. “But, at the end of the day, I can't explain it, but my father was a pretty mean guy and I loved him. I don't know how I can explain that to you, other than it's just the truth.”
While Tommy is initially reluctant to connect with T.L., he finds himself suddenly unable to avoid his dad when his ex-wife Angela (Ali Larter) decides to move him into their home after Dorothy's funeral. To call it a major shock for Tommy is an understatement.
“Your wife says, ‘By the way, we're bringing your dad to live with us,' and I already live with enough of them,” Thornton teases. “I don’t just have the kids and [Angela]. I've got my attorney Nate (Colm Feore) and my petroleum engineer guy, Dale (James Jordan).”
Still, he notes that Tommy handles the surprise situation way better than Nate. “Everything that happens in that house, it looks like he's about to have a heart attack,” he adds.
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Elliott, on the other hand, explains that he was drawn to T.L. because of the emotional role that he plays within the extended Norris family this season. “There's quite an arc to be played out with his character,” he says. “He starts at a very low point in his life and, coming to the end of it, I believe he gets a little shot in the arm.”
As well as the opportunity to address his past wrongs and move forward. “He gets to deal with a lot of the things, I think, that he's dwelt on for the major portion of his life,” Elliott says. “And they've all been not very healthy places to be. So it’s a chance to come around and heal a little bit.”
Emerson Miller/Paramount+
Sam Elliott as T.L. and Billy Bob Thornton as Tommy on 'Landman'
Landman co-creator Christian Wallace adds that the pair’s complicated relationship also allows viewers to see a different side of Tommy through his connection to his dad.
“We'll see that they're both cut from the same cloth, and we'll also see how they've kind of diverged over time, T.L. and Tommy,” he says. “They have a fractured relationship, but it seems like they're both willing to explore where they are now in life and see what that looks like.”
But it's not always painful and difficult conversations. “There's also a lot of humor in the way that T.L. is now thrust into this crazy household with Angela and Ainsley (Michelle Randolph) running around," Wallace jokes. "And T.L. is just in this whirlwind of the Norris chaos."
Look! The father and son already have something in common.
Landman airs Sundays on Paramount+.
on Entertainment Weekly
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
