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<\/p>\n‘I’m going to get your ass back to work,’ Sheridan texted Elliott who joins ‘Landman’ in Season 2.<\/p>\n
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Billy Bob Thornton connects ‘1883’ cameo to ‘Landman’ role<\/p>\n
Billy Bob Thornton shares how his “1883” cameo as Marshall Jim Courtright led to his role in “Landman.”<\/p>\n
FORT WORTH, Texas \u2014 Taylor Sheridan<\/a> worked the text message to recruit “1883” star and Western acting legend Sam Elliott<\/a> onto his modern-day oil series “Landman.”<\/p>\n The “Yellowstone” creator<\/a> dropped a line last year just asking what Elliott, 81, was up to.<\/p>\n “I told Taylor that offers come in, but that he really spoiled me with ‘1883.’ That I was having a nice time at home,” says Elliott, speaking to USA TODAY from the “Landman” Fort Worth, Texas set. “And Taylor wrote back, saying, ‘I’m going to get your ass back to work.’ That was his comment. I didn’t know what he was talking about.”<\/p>\n Sheridan, who keeps his cards close in all forms of communication, eventually revealed that Elliott would play T.L., the suddenly reappearing father of oil crisis manager Tommy Norris (Billy Bob Thornton) on “Landman” Season 2<\/a> (Paramount+ Nov. 16).<\/p>\n Elliott says he was dealing with some unspecified “medical b.s.” at the time, which made him hesitant to take the role. But Sheridan wasn’t taking “no” for an answer.<\/p>\n “Taylor told me, ‘Buddy, I’m not going without you,'” says Elliott. “It was the greatest gift.”<\/p>\n It’s Elliott’s most significant role since starring as grizzled former Union Army officer Shea Brennan, who led a westward wagon train with Dutton family ancestors James and Margaret (married couple Tim McGraw and Faith Hill)<\/a> in Sheridan’s 2021 prequel series, “1883.”<\/p>\n “I hadn’t really worked since ‘1883’ until this came along, so I’m starting all over again,” says Elliott. “And I’m jumping right into the (expletive) pan of hot water. This is an established, very successful show.”<\/p>\n Thornton says it’s a “natural choice” for Elliott to play the former wildcat driller and iron-willed “Pops” to his hard-headed Tommy as the strained father-son relationship is explored throughout Season 2.<\/p>\n “There’s one person for Tommy Norris’s father, and it’s Sam Elliott. He’s got the spirit,” says Thornton.<\/p>\n Sam Elliott was at the Vegas table when ‘Landman’ was born<\/p>\n Elliott, who received an Oscar nomination for 2018’s “A Star Is Born,” raised a playful eyebrow at the age gap between himself and TV son Thornton, 70, who is just 11 years his junior.<\/p>\n “That’s cutting it close,” Elliott says, chuckling. “I guess T.L. got started really young.”<\/p>\n The good friends go back decades. Making the 1993 Earp-family Western “Tombstone,” Thornton commuted to set with Elliott, who played Virgil Earp, and Bill Paxton (Morgan Earp).<\/p>\n