Ali Larter Endured Taylor Sheridan’s Ruthless Casting Gauntlet for Landman

Taylor Sheridan does not exactly make life easy for actors, and Ali Larter has the receipts. The Final Destination and Resident Evil alum broke down how she clawed her way into Sheridan's oil saga Landman, and it sounds like a stress test disguised as an audition.

Ali Larter vs. the Sheridan audition gauntlet

In a June 2025 chat with The Hollywood Reporter, Larter laid out a process that escalated fast and did not blink:

• Round 1: four pages of material
• Round 2: ten pages
• Round 3: a screen test in Fort Worth, Texas, where she found herself in a room with 11 other women

'It is no joke... you have to be able to perform.'

Larter says Sheridan intentionally piles on the pressure to see who can actually deliver when it counts. She even called it 'cruel' in the moment, but looking back, she sees the logic: it sorts out who can handle the heat his sets are known for.

For context, Larter plays Angela, the unapologetically gold-digging ex-wife of Billy Bob Thornton's Tommy Norris. Angela is also a mother of two and, like a lot of Sheridan characters, more complicated than the first impression suggests. She first popped up via FaceTime in Season 1 before becoming a bigger presence as the story tightened around Tommy.

She moved out of LA, then fought her way back for this

Before Landman even came her way, Larter had already left Los Angeles for the countryside and was basically betting on herself, trusting that the right project would eventually arrive. When she heard about Landman, she went all in. She wanted to work in Sheridan's world, thinks he is a killer writer, and decided this was worth fighting for again. The road to the role was long and not exactly graceful, but she pushed through it.

Season 2 setup: spoilers for Season 1 ahead

End of Season 1, the board flips: Monty Miller dies, which puts Tommy in the big chair as president of M-TEx Oil. That alone shifts the tone of the show, but there is a new problem on the horizon too. A tougher cartel figure named Gallino steps in, and he is positioned as even fiercer than Jiminez. He is played by Andy Garcia, which immediately upgrades the menace factor. Tommy and Gallino were already talking synergy at the end of the season, so expect that relationship to turn into a money-making alliance or a disaster, possibly both.

The other hanging thread is whether Tommy will honor Monty's way of doing things now that he is running the company. Sheridan loves a power vacuum and a moral test, and this is both at once.

When and where to watch

Landman Season 2 is slated for November 16. Season 1 premiered November 17, 2024. The show streams on Paramount+.

How it is playing so far

Current scorecard: IMDb 8.2/10, Rotten Tomatoes 78%.