How the ‘Landman’ Cast Got Through Those Family Dinner Scenes Without Breaking Character

Even the Landman cast can’t control their laughter while filming those family dinner scenes with Billy Bob Thornton (Tommy Norris) and Ali Larter (Angela Norris).

“Editors really help us on that,” Jacob Lofland, who plays Cooper Norris, exclusively told Us Weekly ahead of the season 2 premiere on Sunday, November 16. “There’s plenty of takes where you’ll catch yourself smiling or almost laughing. You can’t help it, because you’re just watching this happen in front of you.”

Michelle Randolph, who plays Ainsley Norris, told Us that sometimes she feels “so silly” saying the wildest lines.

“What’s the one I say in the first episode?” she asked Lofland. “Something about how your Adam’s Apple is a soup can.”

Randolph was referring to her line: “Did you swallow a soup can? Oh, that’s your Adam’s apple.”

The Landman season 2 premiere featured one of those iconic family dinners — and this one was themed. After Ainsley is accepted into Texas Christian University, Angela decorates the house for a nice wholesome evening. Things get a little rocky though, of course, when she and Tommy go at it, resulting in a food fight featuring cacio e pepe.

“There’s something in it that feels like they enjoy it a little bit,” Randolph told Us about the family fights between her onscreen parents.

Their costar, Colm Feore (Nathan), told Us that the laughter inevitably comes when Thornton “throws off an improvised zinger” or if a plate is thrown and it “nearly decapitates somebody.” Sometimes, he explained, the crew falls apart even worse than the cast.

“This is really silly stuff,” he continued. “It’s so much fun if you try and play it straight, you do it seriously.”

His character —along with James Jordan’s Dale — is present for all the family dinner scenes because he lives in the Norris house.

“We’re being held hostage here. If [Angela] says we’re having paella, we’re having paella. … Whatever she says,” Feore said of his character. “There’s an intensity to the circus that she runs, and we just have to learn to go with it. Sometimes it’s easy and sometimes it’s not.”

Along with the obvious oil industry struggles this season, viewers will continue to see the Norris family dynamic in all its unhinged glory. Both Lofland and Randolph just want to see their characters get along — a departure from the hate they throw each other’s way.

“We would [like] for [our relationship] to grow a little bit more. We have a lot of fun with it, because we get along in person,” Randolph said. “Of course, I love Jacob. I feel like he’s my real brother — but I don’t have that relationship with my siblings. So to have that dynamic onscreen is fun to work with.”

Randolph noted that the audience doesn’t know much about Cooper and Ainsley’s history, and where this animosity originates.

“I like to say they are complete opposites of one another. I think all that Ainsley represents Cooper despises and vice versa,” she continued. “There’s no common ground between the two of them.”

Lofland added, “I think there’s a lot of love, though. There’s love, just in a way of, ‘I hate you.’”

New episodes of Landman season 2 premiere via Paramount+ every Sunday starting November 16.