With production fully firing down in West Texas,LandmanstarAli Larteris pulling back the curtain on her characterAngela Norris — the brash, big personality ex-wife ofBilly Bob Thornton’sTommy Norris— and why Season 2 will be louder, sexier, and even more emotionally explosive than what came before. Angela may have started as a voice on a FaceTime call — all attitude and acrylics — but by the end of Season 1, she’d charged into Midland like a Category 5 storm.
Now, according to Larter, she’s even more layered, more complicated, and more fun to play, as she told Collider’sAidan Kelleyat the Newport Beach TV Festival.
“We do. People keep asking us about the chemistry and all that. For actors like you definitely have to find it if you don’t have it, but when you naturally do and then you put the time into the work, it’s just super magic. And the fact that we get to do this, and we took these two characters with Tommy and Angelo, and we just found this amazing, interesting, complicated, messy, love story, and we love to be able to put it on camera, and we love the way the story is going in the second season.
What Kind of Person Is Angela Norris?
While some fans have labeled Angela “over the top” or “too much,”Larter sees something much deeper in the character — someone raw, real, and trying to heal.
“I think that what’s really interesting is that you start with Angela, but then when you see the cost of the oil business through Angela’s eyes, you also understand it from a different perspective. And even when you get to the finale and you see what the real cost of oil is. So it’s like people, you know, you don’t always want to dig into that and understand the depth of how dangerous that world is, but that’s the reality of working in oil in West Texas.
And so, I think that our show brings you so many different moments and feelings and tones and within the family. For Angela, I’m spending my time trying to put us back together, you know? And she shows her love through food. She shows her love through trying to create these moments for her children. And then she’s newly trying to get back with her ex-husband. So this is a messy time. It’s complicated, and so this character is incredibly layered.
Landmanstreams on Paramount+. Season 2 is in production now.
