Sam Elliott has landed in Midland, Texas, on Landman.
This week on Landman, fans were left in awe of the stunning performance Sam Elliott’s character, T.L. Norris, delivered. If you haven’t watched the episode yet, stop what you’re doing and watch it because you’re missing out on a cinematic masterpiece.
In the episode, T.L. Norris gave a performance that pulled at the heartstrings, telling the heartbreaking story of waiting for Tommy’s mother to regain her spark after losing a baby at four months old. However, the woman that T.L. fell in love with lost herself to alcoholism, and a heartwarming story of a vibrant woman running through a recreational field chasing rainbows fell into a deep addiction.
The heartfelt story that T.L. shared after the gut-wrenching one Tommy told about how he remembers his mother makes it hard for fans to believe they are speaking of the same woman. In Tommy’s story, he recalls coming home from school one day to find his mother, naked, face down in the bathtub. After calling 911 for help, he began to perform CPR on his mother in an effort to bring her back to life.
“They walked me through CPR ’til she puked water in my face while I was blowing air in her lungs. She sat up and looked at me like I was a stranger. Then she pulled her leg back, and she kicked my nose through the back of my head. Then she got up and walked into the kitchen and made herself another drink.”
While Tommy will never forgive his mother for her actions, he is taking the steps to repair his relationship with his father, as he goes back to the sad excuse of the nursing home T.L. lives in and shares that they are moving him to Midland, Texas, to be closer to family.
Sam Elliott’s performance was emotional, thought-provoking, and downright incredible acting. While this is just the start of T.L.’s story, I am very excited to see how his character develops, and this episode proved why Taylor Sheridan was so hell bent on having Sam Elliott as a part of the Landman cast.
Ahead of being cast on Season 2 of Landman, Sam Elliott wasn’t necessarily looking for work, but the work came looking for him. He says that he was content with staying at home, and really only joined the hit series because Taylor Sheridan twisted his arm a bit. Now, Elliott is grateful that Sheridan was so dead set on bringing him back to work together again:
“I told Taylor that offers come in, but that he really spoiled me with ‘1883.’ That I was having a nice time at home. And Taylor wrote back, saying, ‘I’m going to get your a** back to work.’ That was his comment. I didn’t know what he was talking about. Taylor told me, ‘Buddy, I’m not going without you.’ It was the greatest gift.”
In a recent video shared on the Landman YouTube page, the cast and Elliott sat down to talk about how much they love having him on the set. Elliott shared that he really didn’t know what role Sheridan had in mind for him when he got the text from the famed series writer that he was casting him for the show.
“I had a history with Taylor before this show, and it was a gift the first time and it’s a gift this time… I really knew nothing about my character, to be honest with you. I knew that I was going to be Billy Bob’s dad.
Then I saw the words, and there was no question after that.”
It’s really neat to hear that Sam Elliott saw the vision for his character as soon as he read the script, and it made sense why he was chosen for the role. While the entire cast had rave reviews of working with Elliott, and given some of the behind-the-scenes footage shown in the video, it’s clear they had a lot of fun. Elliott shared that this character has also pushed him as an actor.
“It’s been a real emotional ride for this character. Maybe more so than anything I’ve ever done.”
It’s evident that T.L. does carry a lot of emotional baggage. The hope he had that his wife would snap out of her addiction, the regret that he did not put his kid first and left Tommy at home with her while he was working on offshore rigs, and some depression, having lived alone in an assisted living home, where the only joy he has is watching the West Texas sunset every night.
T.L.’s character is already complex, and I am sure more layers will be revealed as the season goes on. Sam Elliott was, without a doubt, the man who needed to play Billy Bob Thornton’s father.
