What you see onscreen is how they are offscreen.
Landman stars Billy Bob Thornton and Ali Larter have been a hot topic of conversation throughout Season 2, as the season’s plotlines focused more on family dynamics and growth.
The previously divorced couple chose to rekindle things during Season 1 of Landman. During Season 2, Tommy’s father, T.L., reminded Tommy that when you find a woman who loves you the way Angela does, you work through all the craziness to make it work. The end of this season threw the couple some curveballs regarding their uncertain financial futures, which brought up past trauma. Still, Billy Bob Thornton’s character assured Ali Larter’s that he would not revert to what had caused their relationship’s downfall.
And at the end of the Season 2 finale, we see Tommy Norris show Angela that while they seem like opposites, he sees how Angela views the joys in life, and beautifully ends the episode, noting that although the world is full of scary things like illness, tragedies, and death, he will keep celebrating their daily wins and will work to make her happy.
The two sell their conventional love flawlessly on camera, thanks to the incredible chemistry they share on set. During a recent conversation with CBS Mornings, Billy Bob Thornton offered the talk show hosts a hilarious answer to what makes his and Ali Larter’s electric on-set chemistry so electric.
“It ain’t hard.”
HA. I mean, is Thornton wrong? Ali Larter is a stunning woman, so I’m sure that always helps the chemistry. Larter has shared her thoughts on what leads to their chemistry, noting that they really try to feel all their scenes authentically and approach them as a real-life couple would.
Billy Bob Thornton then expanded on his thoughts, sharing that the two also instantly clicked and that their offscreen banter is similar to how they act onscreen.
“Every now and again, they’ll throw in a goofball like me in there with a beauty. No, Ali and I had chemistry immediately. I mean, just naturally, and we didn’t know each other before. We met literally two or three days before we started filming the first season. She’s just so fun.
I just kind of let her… We’re kind of like we are in the show in real life. So, she drags me around by the ear.”
But according to what he told Kelly Clarkson during an appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show, it sounds like Larter drags Thornton around by the belt loops rather than by the ear.
The conversation revealed this when Clarkson brought up an interview the pair had previously given on her show, and Larter demonstrated that she loved giving Thornton wedgies right before cameras began rolling. But the wedgies were more like pulling up Thornton’s pants because they were too loose on him.
Billy Bob Thornton has shared numerous times that he wears Levi’s women’s jeans because they fit him better than men’s jeans. Billy Bob shared with Clarkson that, because of the baggy men’s jeans he’s required to wear for his Landman character, Ali Larter often pulls up his pants on set and off set when they go to dinner or drinks after a day of filming.
“Ali follows me around, not just on the show, we’ll go out to dinner. Our relationship’s not a hell of a lot different offscreen, you know? And so one way or the other, we’ll be in a restaurant, and she’ll come up behind me and pull up my pants.”
And just like the show, it sounds like these two co-stars and friends have different tastes for the finer things in life. Angela is a lover of all things nice, spending money on material things, whereas Tommy Norris enjoys peace and a cold Michelob Ultra. Sounds like the apple does not fall far from the tree in real life, either.
“She always wants me to take her someplace fancy. She’ll say, ‘Do not take me to that beer joint again tonight.’ She goes, ‘We’re going somewhere where I can have champagne and caviar.”
Clarkson then hilariously adds:
“And you’re walking in with your a** hanging out. I love it. I love it. You’re bringing class everywhere you go. That’s what I say.”
A little bit of class and a little bit of a**, eh?
Season 2 revealed the areas in which Angela and Tommy have grown as a couple. Still, it’s clear that Angela has concerns about how their family dynamics might change as Tommy, Cooper, and T.L. begin operating their own oil company. I will be interested to see what antics these two get into in Season 3.
Check out the entire interview:
Watch the best of Tommy and Angela:
