For actress Ali Larter, joining the chaotic, dusty world of Taylor Sheridan’s latest drama, Landman, has been a career highlight. Playing the bold and unpredictable Angela Norris, the ex-wife of oilman Tommy Norris (Billy Bob Thornton), Larter finds the role uniquely rewarding. She describes the opportunity to portray a woman who lives entirely by her own rules as “exciting at this point in my career”.
The series, which plunges viewers into the high-stakes oil boom of West Texas, returned for its second season in November 2025 and has already been renewed for a third. While the business of securing drilling rights provides the backdrop, the show’s heart is the tumultuous, messy, and passionate relationships between its characters. At the center of much of that emotional chaos is Larter’s Angela, a character who has sparked intense discussion and debate among fans since the show’s premiere in November 2024.
Who is Angela Norris on ‘Landman’?
Angela Norris is the sophisticated ex-wife of Tommy Norris and the mother of their two children, Cooper and Ainsley. Despite their divorce and her remarriage to a wealthier man, Angela remains deeply entangled in Tommy’s life. Her presence is not that of a calming, stabilizing force often expected from a motherly figure. Instead, she is a catalyst for emotion, frequently escalating tension and creating confrontations.
As defined by the show’s official wiki and discussed in interviews, Angela is confident, bold, and lives for a good time. She is fun, wild, and often acts on impulse. Her motivations are driven by a potent mix of nostalgia, jealousy, and a fierce desire to reassemble her fractured family, regardless of the complications it causes. In the first season, she successfully maneuvers her way back into Tommy’s home, convinced their bond is unbreakable. In the ongoing second season, her storylines involve scouting multi-million dollar mansions, organizing extravagant pirate-themed dinners, and even winning big at a casino.
Ali Larter on Embracing an ‘Emotionally Complex and Bold’ Woman
Larter has spoken openly about the joy she finds in playing Angela. In a recent interview with Variety, she expressed her appreciation for Taylor Sheridan’s writing, particularly his creation of a vibrant woman in her late forties.
“I think it’s incredible that Taylor’s writing for a woman in her late ’40s who’s still very alive in her body, who still wants to be intimate with her husband,” Larter said. “I love playing a woman that’s this alive… for me to play a woman who just doesn’t care about all the judgment of others is so freeing”.
She connects with the character’s refusal to be boxed in by societal expectations. Larter notes that many women approach her, seeing Angela as an aspirational figure who embodies a sense of freedom they crave in their own lives. The role represents a significant and welcome challenge for Larter at this stage in her decades-long career in film and television.
“There’s something so delicious about playing a character who does it by her rules, who just lives her life as she wants to live it, who loves hard and free,” Larter told Variety. “I think it’s exciting at this point in my career and at my age to get to play someone who’s this emotionally complex and bold”.
A ‘High-Pressure’ Set and Forming Bonds
The experience of filming Landman has been intense, matching the high-octane world it portrays. Larter revealed that the set, under Sheridan’s direction, was not a place for “handholding.” She described it as a “high-pressure, high-octane” environment where actors were “thrown into the fire”.
This intensity forged a strong bond between Larter and her on-screen daughter, played by Michelle Randolph. With little outside reassurance, the two actresses leaned on each other for support throughout the first season. Larter praised Randolph as an “amazing person” and a “talented actress,” crediting Sheridan’s “masterful” casting for creating such a natural dynamic. She has also spoken highly of working with Billy Bob Thornton, calling him “one of the best actors working” and noting that their scenes together never have “an inauthentic beat”.
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Fan Reactions and the Purpose of a Polarizing Character
Angela Norris has become one of the most talked-about characters on Landman, but not all the talk has been positive. Media coverage has highlighted that Angela is one of the series’ most disliked and debated figures. Her loud, impulsive, and emotionally raw behavior intentionally provokes a strong response from the audience.
Larter is aware of this backlash and views it as a sign that the character is working as intended. She suggests that Taylor Sheridan acts as a “provocateur,” using characters like Angela to hold a mirror up to certain behaviors and societal norms. Angela defies easy categorization as a hero or a villain; she is a paradox—both nurturing and destructive, self-assured yet oblivious. This complexity is central to the show’s exploration of human behavior under pressure.
Larter also believes some initial frustration from viewers stemmed from the show’s structure. The earliest episodes focused heavily on the oil business, leaving some to wonder about the focus on Tommy’s family.
“People only saw the first two episodes, and Taylor loves to throw you a hook. Nobody knew when they saw the first two episodes that our show was really about the family,” Larter explained. The full first season, she argues, reveals a beautiful character arc that contextualizes Angela’s role in the larger story.
What is ‘Landman’ About?
Landman is a neo-Western drama series created by Taylor Sheridan, the mind behind Yellowstone, 1923, and films like Wind River and Sicario. The show is based on the podcast “Boomtown” by Christian Wallace, which investigated the real-life oil boom in West Texas’s Permian Basin.
The series follows Tommy Norris (Billy Bob Thornton), a “landman” or crisis manager for an oil company whose job is to secure drilling rights from landowners and manage the ensuing conflicts. The trillion-dollar industry is depicted as a dangerous, chaotic world of gamblers and dreamers, where immense wealth and brutal risk coexist. The show explores how the pursuit of fortune fractures relationships and reveals raw human instincts. The ensemble cast includes Demi Moore and Jon Hamm as oil power couple Cami and Monty Miller, alongside Jacob Lofland, Kayla Wallace, Andy Garcia, and Michael Peña.
New episodes of Landman are released weekly. The series is available to stream exclusively on Paramount+.
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