[This story contains major spoilers from the penultimate episode of Landman season two, “Plans, Tears and Sirens.”]
The penultimate episode of Landman season two ended on a violent cliffhanger when Cooper Norris, the aspiring oil man son to Billy Bob Thornton‘s starring oil fixer who is played by Jacob Lofland, entered the back alley of the bar where his 22-year-old fiancée, Ariana (Paulina Chavez), works and found her being sexually assaulted by a former, disorderly bar patron.
Cooper arrived after the man had beaten Ariana nearly unconscious and as he was removing her clothes in an attempt to rape her. Cooper launched onto the man and severely beat him until Ariana’s boss arrived. The episode ended by showing that a security camera was capturing the incident in the alley, and the police had been called.
“This season, there were some twists and turns that you did not see coming. I tried to predict every bit of it before we read it, and some of it blew me off of feet. I was like, ‘I did not see that coming,’” Lofland recently told The Hollywood Reporter in a chat heading into the final episodes of season two.
Below, Lofland dove into how he approached Cooper for season two, the ways in which he most relates to his character and how the Paramount+ mega-hit from co-creators Taylor Sheridan and Christian Wallace has completely changed his life.
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The first season of Landman was a mega success, and season two continues to be as well. What has been your reaction to seeing the response to the show?
Overwhelmed. Signing onto the show, there was no doubt it was going to be good — Billy Bob Thornton, Taylor Sheridan, you can’t go wrong. But I don’t think any of us saw the reaction [coming], and how big it got. I don’t think any of us could even fathom, and it’s still kind of hard to. But I love the fact that everyone loves it. That’s awesome. It’s completely changed my life. So that’s fun.
What are some of the ways that being part of this show has changed your life?
Being recognized is probably the biggest thing. It’s really hard for me not to look like Cooper. I walk around with a hat and look exactly like him. (Laughs.) Especially walking around Fort Worth [in Texas] right now, every other person turns around, like, “Landman!” So that’s awesome. I love it. I love talking to people.
Where do you live full time?
I live in Arkansas. I do have a place here in Fort Worth now.
When did you make that move?
Recently, in the last month or so.
I’ve spoken to several actors in the Taylor Sheridan-verse who have either left Los Angeles or moved to where their show films. Did your time on Landman influence your move?
One-hundred percent. I had the privilege of working in Fort Worth six or seven years ago on an independent movie and kind of fell in love with it then, when I was 24. And then getting to come back last season, I completely fell in love. I felt, “If I’m going to be anywhere else, it’s got to be Fort Worth.”
Your co-stars Ali Larter and Michelle Randolph spoke to me about how season one was an exciting challenge of finding their characters and the tone of the show, and then season two felt much more familiar when returning to set. How do you compare filming the two seasons?
The hardest part of coming back was after we had such success on season one was, how do we hold that bar? Are going to be able to perform to the point that the bar can actually stay? And luckily, I think we’ve raised it, which gives us that much more going into [season] three. But it got incredibly easy. As a matter of fact, me and Paulina [Chávez] were up the first day [of filming], and we were both just like, “How are we going to do this?” And as soon as “action” was called and we were back on set, we fell right back into the characters and there was no question. You start seeing that you have this understanding that we built last year that hasn’t gone anywhere. There’s really no thought that has to go into falling back into these characters. So it was refreshing. Once the butterflies left, it was great. We had an amazing time this season.
What are some ways you’re similar to Cooper? What are some ways you’re different?
I’m a little older than Cooper at this point, so I’ve kind of made the mistakes he’s making. That’s also what makes him so relatable to me. The journey and path he’s on in any business or any struggle or anything that you have, there’s always this learning curve of, “Am I making the right decision, or jumping into a decision way too fast without doing the research?” And then you gotta go back, make a mistake, and go, “Okay, we’re not gonna do that again.” It’s really a learning thing, and it’s so relatable to me being a young man just a few years ago going through some of this in this career, and making decisions and maybe not making the right ones or making bad ones at other points. You learn. I think that’s what makes Cooper so relatable and definitely why I relate to him so much.
Last season, you guys had all the scripts before you started filming. This season, it was different. How was that experience different for you as an actor, and were you going episode by episode towards the end of the season?
Yes, episode by episode. We don’t shoot in chronological order either, so we might work on episode six one day and then go back to episode two in the same day. You’re always jumping around, but that’s part of it. It goes back to Taylor [Sheridan]’s writing. It’s easy to act and you don’t get too jumbled up because it’s on the page. What we’re saying is almost word for word and exactly what he wrote with the same emotion. Taylor writes so well that it just comes off the page. There’s not a whole lot of thinking that needs to take place in order to play these characters, especially for Cooper.
Season one spanned about 10 days of time. For season two, are we operating under a similar timeframe?
I’m pretty sure. We’ve talked about it. We never really added it up through the season [as we were filming]. But after [we finished] and have talked about it, it’s probably 10 to 15 days. There’s probably a six-week gap in between seasons, so we’ve known the characters for two or three months.
Cooper got a big dose of reality in his father-son scenes this season between you and Billy Bob Thornton as Cooper ventures into the oil business. You have spoken about how your relationships with your real fathers brought authenticity to your scenes. Does that always happen when you’re across the table from Billy Bob?
It always happens. We’re acting, but it’s so real and so raw when you’re working with Billy Bob. It takes the guesswork out of it. You trust each other. It’s so easy and freeing. There’s no worries when Billy’s sitting across from you — you know it’s going to be awesome. It’s gold.
How did you do you two work together on that relationship?
We spent a lot of time off camera, but I’m not going to say that it was necessarily working on the relationship. I’m super privileged to call Billy my friend. I can call Billy and we can talk for two hours. Probably not about work, just about life in general. He’s just such a cool dude that you want to be his best friend, and he’s so outgoing and generous with his time. He’s just easy to work with. It’s fun to be around Billy.
You added another Norris man to the family tree this season with Sam Elliott as Tommy’s father and Cooper’s grandfather. I read that you were starstruck by him at first. How does adding another generation to the family tree help you understand Cooper more?
It helps understand the dynamic of the family a little better, and where Tommy’s coming from. Episode four was the first time Cooper and Ainsley [Michelle Randolph] both had some understanding of what Tommy came from. I don’t think it’s ever been spoken about that much. He says he left years and years ago and never came back. I don’t think that’s been a conversation any of them have had. Angela [Ali Larter] probably knows some of it, but not the depth we’re learning now. It’s impactful and shows how good of a man Tommy is to not do that [to repeat the cycle], and the conversation comes back up for me in that sense of: The way you raise that girl’s son is the way he’s going to raise his. He broke the curse or broke the system he thought he was stuck in. It really speaks wonders to his character as a man. The fact that he’s relaying that to his son now at this age is a deep thing, and a conversation that a lot of people will never have.
Have you gotten words of wisdom from Sam Elliott or Billy Bob Thornton as you were filming?
Not words, really. I never look for a sentence. It’s more from being around them; their professionalism. Their energy and want to work, and really, just how good they are. That rubs off more than anything else. More than anything they could tell you or teach you. Just being in the same place and getting to work around them and seeing their demeanor and how much this work means to them speaks wonders.
Cooper and Ariana are a tonal shift in the show. Do you feel that as the actors, too? Like you’re almost in a different show sometimes?
Sometimes, yes, one-hundred percent. As Cooper, there was very little family stuff in the first season. There’s a little bit more in season two, but season one was just Ariana for Cooper. So it really did feel like it was a totally different show, because everyone else is doing stuff over here and we weren’t really involved in that. But this season definitely feels like it’s all coming around more full circle, and family, for Cooper, is starting to be a much bigger part of the show.
What were your hopes for Cooper and Ariana in the beginning of the season, as he was planning to propose?
Everything’s just a pipe dream until you start putting it in motion. I think he’s dreaming big. I think they both are. This is a Taylor [Sheridan] show. There’s going to be roadblocks. There were some twists and turns that I promise you did not see coming. I tried to predict every bit of it before we read it, and some of it blew me off of feet. I was like, “I did not see that coming.”
How would you say the end of season two sets up the already renewed third season?
I don’t even know if you can call it a cliffhanger. It’s just going to leave everybody wanting more. And I’ll tell you personally, I cannot wait to go back and start season three. I cannot wait. I’m looking so forward to it because of where we left off. Like, the first episode’s going to be awesome. I haven’t read anything, I don’t have any idea what’s coming. But I know it’s going to be awesome just from the set up that we have coming out of season two.
Your showrunner and co-creator Christian Wallace said that he feels like after two seasons, you’ve still only scratched the surface. Billy Bob Thornton signed on to do the show for four or five years. Do you have a ton of questions about Cooper you’d like to explore for years to come?
You know, me and Cooper are pretty similar in our demeanors and the way we look at life. I’ve made a lot of the same mistakes in other aspects that he’s made in this show. So I think I’ve got a pretty good understanding of him. Now, Taylor might tell me different next season! But it’s all up to him. I’ll give him my interpretation until him or Stephen Kay [director] tell me to change it.
What has the response been like for you from people in the oil business?
They love it. It’s such a cool thing for this world that really hasn’t been talked about, and when it has, it’s been demonized and put into terms that maybe don’t shed it in the best light. But for these guys who devote their lives to it, it’s a generational thing. Like Cooper and Tommy and TL. These people don’t just jump into doing this. Children figure out how to do it and that’s the best way to get through it, and the best money to be made. It’s really cool to see these generations of a father and son in business together coming up to us and being like, “Hey, we’re landmen. My son’s roughnecking for me right now.” It means a lot to them and to us that they care this much about it.
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Landman season two is streaming nine episodes on Paramount+, with the finale releasing next weekend.
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