Didn’t know the outcome long before it was time to film.
If you don’t want the Season 2 finale of Landman spoiled…stop here.
Alright, you read the warning, so I’m not taking long to dive into the meat and potatoes of it. I have to say, I am shocked that Tommy Norris went to the investor (and cartel boss) Gallino, who operates under the legitimate-sounding alias Danny Morrell, to get his LLC off the ground.
But hey, Cami Miller let a good thing go, and although she parted ways with Norris for not wanting to “wildcat” anymore, it’s clear this old horse had one last buck in him and wanted to see if he could win big one more time in the oil industry. And with the help of his lucky son, Cooper Norris, the family is sitting on a literal goldmine of land leases that are ready to be drilled on.
So with that, CTT Oil Exploration & Cattle is born.
But the real question is: did Billy Bob Thornton know his character’s fate before filming started? Throughout the season, Tommy Norris was calm despite butting heads with Cami Miller. Did he know there were brighter pastures ahead? Did he incorporate some of that suave knowing that his team would leave M-Tex Oil for this new venture with him throughout the season?
Before Season 2, in a sit-down with Gold Derby, Billy Bob confessed that he’s only seen half the script so far, which is different than how Sheridan presented it to the cast for Season 1:
“Last year we had every episode when we started. We do not this year. We’ve only seen about half of it. I can tell you this much. I’m loving this season, the relationships are really growing and gelling, not only as actors, but with the characters. The first season of anything, you’re explaining everything to everybody and the trick to writing things like that is to not make it seem like exposition, and I thought Taylor did a wonderful job of that in Season 1.”
Naturally, you don’t need to spend time setting the stage and the characters when you’re writing the second season, so for him, this season has been really exciting so far:
“But now, people know who we are, so we don’t have to set anything up anymore. We just dove right into it and we were these people again… this season I’m actually gonna have a pillowcase on my head the entire season. Yeah, even when I’m eating, even at home, and it’s so exciting!”
This interview raised the question of whether the cast would get the second half of the season shortly after. In a recent sit-down with CBS Mornings, Billy Bob shared that Sheridan kept the script close to his chest and didn’t give the actors much warning of what lay ahead for them, leading up to the finale.
Billy Bob Thornton shared in the interview that he did not know Tommy Norris’ fate long before he was in character in front of the camera, just the way he likes it.
“I do, but not very far in advance. Taylor keeps it pretty close to the vest… People kind of assume, especially when you’re the lead of something, that you talk to the creator all the time, you know everything that’s happening.
But personally, I like that. I like not knowing until the last minute. Some actors, you know, they’d rather have all ten scripts, so they can know where it’s going, so they can read through it and see their parts. But I just kind of like to be surprised and learn things at the last minute, and I don’t like to rehearse or any of that kind of stuff.”
It seems like that’s a common theme of Billy Bob acting in the moment instead of rehearsing heavily before filming a scene. But hey, it works for him. Tommy Norris is always authentic, and it’s evident that Billy Bob fully embraces his character. Sometimes you need to feel things once, or else it doesn’t feel genuine.
As Landman is renewed for a third season, it will be interesting to see whether Taylor Sheridan keeps the script close to his chest again, leaving the fate of these characters in question for the actors playing them.
