SPOILER ALERT: This post contains minor spoilers from Episode 2 of Season 2 of “Landman“, “Sins of the Father”, premiering Sunday, November 23rd on Paramount+.
Sam Elliott is a top cowboy actor, so it's no surprise that he linked up with Taylor Sheridan and became an integral part of his co-starring show. He first starred in the Yellowstone prequel, 1883, and now plays T.L. Norris, the father of Billy Bob Thornton's main character, Tommy, in the second season of Landman.
Viewers first meet TL in a more emotional state than the stoic actor often portrays, when he receives the news that his wife has died in a memory care facility. Meanwhile, TL is in a separate facility, his body broken by life in the oil fields, and he seems to exist only to watch the West Texas sunset every day.
When asked how he was able to evoke such strong emotions in the series, Elliott said it was a naturalistic process.
“It’s just on the page,” he said. “I've had time to think about it. I just wanted to be open to whatever comes my way. When you have material like that, you don't look at a piece of material, or at least I don't look at a piece of material and say, 'I'd really like to cry here' or 'I'd really love to make an audience cry' or something like that. It just has to happen naturally. One of the greatest gifts of Taylor's material is that he just lets those kinds of emotions flow. I spent a good time part of the time I I've been crying all season, so I didn't expect it, but it's just what happened.”
Additionally, Elliott said he feels a deep connection to Sheridan's storytelling, which extends to the quiet life he lives with his wife, actress Katharine Ross, and their daughter Cleo.
“I've spent a lot of my life growing up outdoors, and there's something about Taylor's material that I feel like in some ways it's influenced by that. It really speaks very deeply to me,” Elliott said. “This man is connected to the earth, this thing that comes up out of the ground. It's certainly not like '1883,' where we're always in the elements and everything, but there's something about that that I appreciate personally. It's similar to where I live. I live on the western edge of Malibu. I've lived there for 50 years with my wife and daughter. It takes me completely away from Los Angeles, and that's the choice I made. It's probably not the smartest choice.” in terms of continuing a career in the film business.
“I am in the element and this is the life I have chosen, which Katherine, Cleo and I, all three of us, accept,” he continued. “There's something about this guy sitting in a wheelchair at 81 or 82, no matter how old he is, watching the sunset. I mean, I don't know what else to say about it other than that. There's a reason for it. He's drawn to it and he talks about it in the second episode: the light, the dust, the heat, the lack of moisture and the things we hate about this country. She hates us all day and then gives us this sunset. Those elements speak very, very strongly to me.”
This interview has been edited and condensed.
