<\/p>\n
When \u201cLandman\u201d returns for season 2<\/a> on Sunday, Nov. 16, fans will see new insights into Tommy Norris\u2019 (Billy Bob Thornton) home life.<\/p>\n Tommy spent the first go-around reconnecting with his ex-wife Angela (Ali Larter) and daughter Ainsley (Michelle Randolph), in addition to helping out his son Cooper (Jacob Lofland) in the oil business.<\/p>\n Now, Sam Elliott is joining the show<\/a> as Tommy\u2019s estranged father T.L.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought it was brilliant to now have the father come in, and you see where this cat came from,\u201d Thornton said.<\/p>\n \u26a1 More service stories from our newsroom:<\/p>\n \u2192‘Lioness’ filing in Fort Worth this week<\/a><\/p>\n \u2192Here’s why flags are half-staff in Texas through Nov. 14<\/a><\/p>\n \u2192Traffic IS getting worse in N TX. Here’s proof.<\/a><\/p>\n \u2192How to check flight delays at DFW Airport, Love Field<\/a><\/p>\n Ahead of Sunday\u2019s season 2 premiere on Paramount+, Thornton and Elliott spoke with the Star-Telegram about the show\u2019s return.<\/p>\n This came after the duo attended the Fort Worth red carpet premiere<\/a> at the Modern Art Museum last week. They also stuck around the following day for the Lone Star Film Festival Gala<\/a>, where Elliott received the \u201cBill Paxton Achievement in Film Award.\u201d<\/p>\n The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.<\/p>\n Star-Telegram: Billy Bob, the show\u2019s first season was such a phenomenon last year. What do you make of that big success?<\/p>\n Billy Bob Thornton: Well, Taylor [Sheridan] just writes great stories. He writes great dialogue. He picks the right actors for all the parts. For some reason, Taylor strikes a chord with people. Like Sam said many times, Taylor writes honestly, and he writes characters who are fully themselves. He writes characters that are drawn very clearly. Not everybody sounds the same, everybody\u2019s an individual. They also say what they want to say and do what they want to do, and I think people are kind of ready for that kind of thing. You know what I mean?<\/p>\n S-T: Sam, you have history with both Taylor and Billy Bob. When you watched the first season, is it one of those things where you call them up and say, \u201cHey, I\u2019m available if you need me?\u201d<\/p>\n Sam Elliott: I didn\u2019t know anything about the fact that I was going to come in here. I started watching season 1 after I\u2019d spoken to Taylor, and he told me that he wanted me to join the show. [My wife] Katharine [Ross] and I had watched it prior to that, but then we watched it a second time, when I knew I was going to be coming in. I really didn\u2019t know anything about it, until Taylor told me. I hadn\u2019t worked since \u201c1883\u201d and I had some other things going on in my life.<\/p>\n I spoke to Taylor on the phone and he asked me what I was up to. I said I hadn\u2019t been doing anything. I told him he spoiled me for writing \u201c1883\u201d and he said, \u201cWell, I\u2019m gonna put your ass back to work.\u201d That was the first I heard of it, and I didn\u2019t really know what he meant. It was months later that I found out what he was talking about when he talked about coming in and playing Billy\u2019s dad.<\/p>\n S-T: Billy Bob, the first season is about Tommy getting his family back together. The family is dysfunctional, but I do think they love each other. How does Sam coming in as your father, T.L., fit into the family narrative this season?<\/p>\n Thornton: Well, it was a great idea by Taylor, I think. Most of us, in the cast, you don\u2019t really know where they all came from. You know me, and we know that Ali [Larter] is my ex-wife, she\u2019s back into my life. You know the kids and who my lawyer is, and you know who James Jordan\u2019s character [Dale] is, and all this stuff. But we didn\u2019t really know much about Tommy\u2019s history, other than with Jon Hamm and Demi [Moore].<\/p>\n I thought it was brilliant to now have the father come in, and you see where this cat came from. It creates a really interesting dynamic. Because, as you know, the home life is already weird [laughs]. Now Sam is added to the mix. It\u2019s a father and son, who are kind of estranged, coming back together. So you add that to it, and it just amps season 2 up another 100 percent.<\/p>\n S-T: You guys make the show here in Fort Worth, but you also spend a lot of time in the small towns around the area. Springtown, Jacksboro, Benbrook<\/a>, to name a few. Billy Bob, do you have any special memories from shooting in these towns?<\/p>\n Thornton: Well, first of all, Fort Worth is not only my favorite city in Texas, it\u2019s my favorite city in the country. I mean that. I live out between Weatherford and Granbury, so I spend my off time out that way. But yeah, Jacksboro, Mineral Wells. I got to know Brian [Miller], who has the bar [Rickhouse Brewing<\/a>] at the Crazy Water [Hotel] in Mineral Wells. He just texted me the other day, and he said, \u201cWould you mind if we named a beer after you at the bar?\u201d I said, \u201cYeah, I\u2019d be honored.\u201d He said, \u201cWhat do you want us to call it?\u201d<\/p>\n Billy Bob beer is too much. That\u2019s too damn much [laughs]. I said, \u201cWell, people call me BBT sometimes.\u201d They just named a beer \u201cBBT\u201d in Mineral Wells at the Crazy Water Hotel in the bar, just so you know. If you ever want to go out and have one, tell Brian I said it\u2019s on me.<\/p>\n \u201cLandman\u201d season 2 premieres Sunday on Paramount+.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When \u201cLandman\u201d returns for season 2 on Sunday, Nov. 16, fans will see new insights into Tommy Norris\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44284,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[25987,254,116,118,117,580,251,253,17292],"class_list":{"0":"post-44283","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-billy-bob-thornton-talk-making-landman-season-2-in-fort-worth","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-fort-worth","11":"tag-fort-worth-headlines","12":"tag-fort-worth-news","13":"tag-fort-worth-startelegram","14":"tag-local-news","15":"tag-newsbreak","16":"tag-sam-elliott"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}