Billy Bob Thornton is not ‘big on pretending to be somebody’. Taylor Sheridan wrote ‘Landman’ for him.

Billy Bob Thornton found he was the man Farmer even before he knew the show existed.

The Oscar-winning actor was at the premiere in Las Vegas in December 2021 at 1883a show where he had a cameo role when series creator Taylor Sheridan approached him with some unexpected news.

“(Sheridan) said, ‘I’m writing a show for you called Farmerand it’s in the oil business — and you’re the farmer,” Thornton told Yahoo Entertainment.

While the news might have come as a surprise to the actor, he was drawn to the writer-producer-director’s plan to “write it in your voice.”

“It’s always a nice thing for an actor when a writer writes specifically for you,” Thornton said. “I’m not big on pretending to be someone, so I like parts where you can put a lot of yourself into it. And it seemed to fit.”

Farmerpremiering November 17 on Paramount+, is the latest series from Yellowstone creator Sheridan. Based on the podcast Boomtown from Christian Wallace, the show was created by Sheridan and Wallace and stars Thornton as Tommy Norris, the titular farmer in a West Texas oil town who acts as an intermediary between the billionaires and the so-called roughnecks.

Jon Hamm stars as one of the billionaires whose wife is played by Demi Moore, while Ali Larter stars as Tommy’s ex-wife and mother of his two children.

Thornton’s role is a mix of no-nonsense strongman and exasperated father and ex-husband, a part that allows him to show off his funnier side.

“One of the things I love about it is that (Sheridan) actually injected a sense of humor into the character and also this protective nature over his kids,” Thornton said. “I have a 20-year-old daughter in college right now and (it’s) very easy for me, no research needed, to protect her.”

The actor also said he enjoyed playing such a nuanced character that wasn’t “one note.”

“I don’t like playing characters that are just good all the time, or characters that are just bad, although I have done that. I mean, I don’t think the guy is in it Fargo it was so warm and fuzzy,” he said.

Like the different sides of Thornton’s character, Farmer himself alternates between lush boardrooms and country clubs in the wealthier set and the dirt and grime of the “patch,” or where the rig workers install and demolish oil wells. While deals can be killed in these boardrooms, real people can lose their lives amid the fire and dust from the rigs, something Thornton said he got a taste of while filming.

“There were some scenes that were difficult to do,” Thornton said. “It’s not fun to be so close to an oil explosion and fire, but I was pretty close.”

How close?

“Close enough to where I thought I’d melt,” he said. “I even drove a truck through the fire at one point. And with the windows up and all, it felt like it was 300 degrees in the truck. So my respect for firefighters was always pretty high. It’s much higher now.”

Putting out both literal and metaphorical fires is what Tommy does best, juggling the interests of a variety of players. While taking tense calls from billionaires, drug cartels and lawyers, he also manages rich workers, housemates (played by James Jordan and Colm Feore) and his own fractured family.

Out of all these groups, Thornton said the family scenes were the most fun for him to shoot.

“I grew up in an eccentric family,” he explained, “so to sit there and do these scenes with this eccentric family and sort of an extended family with James and Colm, it’s just—I’ve been at that table before. You know what do I mean?”

The first two episodes of Farmer start streaming November 17 on Paramount+.