Billy Bob Thornton Talks New Taylor Sheridan Show ‘Landman’

As Taylor Sheridan continues to churn out TV shows at breakneck speed, he has enlisted Billy Bob Thornton as his latest leading man for new series Farmer.

The Paramount+ series is set in the world of oil rigs in West Texas and stars Thornton as Tommy Norris, a crisis manager at an oil company. Thornton previously had a small role in Sheridan’s series 1883which helped spark the idea for his own series.

“I went to (1883) premiere in Las Vegas, and after that we had a dinner and Taylor was sitting next to me and he said, ‘Listen, I have something to write about you. It’s called Farmerit’s going on in the oil business and I’m going to write it in your voice because I think I’ve known you long enough now to write in your voice,” Thornton recalled to The Hollywood Reporter when speaking at Farmerpremieres in LA on Tuesday. “And when I read the first script, I was like, ‘Wow, you did, didn’t you?’ Because I read it and thought, ‘Yeah, that’s kind of me if I was a farmer.’ So that was pretty amazing.”

The star said he and Sheridan had “a very easy working relationship” as they were brought up in the same way and understood each other well. He also weighed in on the creator’s series of TV successes, which include Yellowstone — which kicked off its possibly final season’s run on Sunday with its biggest ratings yet — as well as the current broadcast Lionessand 1883, 1923, King of Tulsa and Mayor of Kingstown. (Sheridan, meanwhile, appeared as an actor in the premiere of both Yellowstone and Lioness.)

“People are hungry for human stories,” Thornton said. “These days in theaters it’s mainly event movies and superhero stuff and animated stuff and all that; there are a few human stories to get through. But these things are like a 10-hour movie exploring people. And I think people are hungry for that, and I think that’s why they relate to Taylor’s stuff.”

He jokingly added that after Sheridan’s reputation for turning everything he touches to gold, “Please don’t let me be the one to turn it to tin!”

Farmer also stars Jon Hamm, Demi Moore and Ali Larter, the latter of whom called her character “the opportunity of a lifetime” and credited Sheridan with “really recreating the American West on television. He has a way of writing incredibly dynamic women, and he also gives space in his stories to show their faults and vulnerabilities.”

Larter, who plays Thornton’s character’s ex-wife Angela, called the actor “an absolute GED” and noted, “when you read something like a TV show, you have to think and hope that it’s going to go on for seasons and seasons, so what’s that story , that’s really authentic and true and has some room to breathe and grow? So for us it wasn’t just fighting and not just sparring with each other; how do we find the love and the humor in this?”

Farmer premieres its first two episodes Sunday on Paramount+.