Sam Elliott, known for his iconic Western roles, recently spoke with Variety about his experience in Landman Season 2, where he played Thomas 'TL' Norris, the father of Billy Bob Thornton's Tommy Norris. Elliott expressed his desire for more wholesome and heartwarming moments in Season 3, particularly between his character and Cheyenne, played by Francesca Xureb. He praised Xureb's portrayal, calling her a 'lovely girl' and a 'dream to be around'. Elliott's character, TL, was introduced in Season 2 as a worn-down former oil field worker living in a rundown nursing home, who finds companionship and kindness through Cheyenne's presence. The relationship between TL and Cheyenne became one of the most emotional and surprising stories in Season 2, and Elliott hopes that it will continue to be a positive and uplifting aspect of the show in Season 3.
Landman has been about human relationships as much as the oil business from the very start, but one of the more touching bonds in the series came very late in the game, as an old timer connected with a young firecracker, and even though the relationship was entirely platonic, the sparks flew.
Now, heading into Season 3, Taylor Sheridan's favorite Western icon hopes that it'll be more of the same. Speaking with Variety, Sam Elliott opened up about joining Landman Season 2 as Thomas “TL” Norris, the father of Billy Bob Thornton’s Tommy Norris. Elliott also made it very clear that, while he has no idea what Sheridan has planned for TL’s future, he does have one hope for the character’s relationship with Cheyenne, played by Francesca Xureb.
“I love that you mentioned Francesca, because she’s overlooked in most all of this stuff that we do,” Elliott said. “And she was a dream to be around, not only to work with, but she’s just a lovely girl. I have no idea what Taylor has in mind for that character. I hope it just remains what it is: this wholesome relationship.
” That relationship became one of the more surprising emotional stories in Landman Season 2. TL is introduced as a worn-down former oil field worker living in a rundown nursing home, largely confined to a wheelchair and carrying years of damage from hard labor, alcohol abuse, grief, and regret. After the death of his wife, he moves in with Tommy and his family in Midland, but he’s clearly a man who doesn’t know what to do with himself anymore.
Then Cheyenne enters the picture. Tommy hires her to act as TL’s physical therapist, despite the fact that she's more familiar with dancing around poles, and while the setup could easily have tipped into something cheap or uncomfortable, Elliott sees the dynamic differently. For him, Cheyenne’s presence gives TL something he badly needs, and that's about a bit of kindness, attention, and companionship. COLLIDER.
Collider · Quiz Collider Exclusive · Taylor Sheridan Universe Quiz Which Taylor Sheridan Show Do You Belong In? Yellowstone · Landman · Tulsa King · Mayor of Kingstown Four worlds. All of them brutal, complicated, and built on power, loyalty, and the price of survival. Taylor Sheridan doesn't write heroes — he writes people who do what they have to do and live with the cost.
Ten questions will reveal which one of his worlds you were made for. 🤠Yellowstone 🛢️Landman 👑Tulsa King ⚖️Mayor of Kingstown FIND YOUR WORLD → QUESTION 1 / 10POWER 01 Where does your power come from? In Sheridan's world, everyone has leverage. The question is what kind.
ALand, legacy, and a name that's been feared and respected for generations. BKnowing the deal better than anyone else in the room — and being willing to walk away first. CReputation. I've earned it the hard way, and everyone in the room knows it.
DBeing the only person both sides will talk to. That makes me indispensable — and dangerous.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 2 / 10LOYALTY 02 Who do you put first, no matter what? Loyalty in Sheridan's universe is always absolute — and always costly. AFamily — blood or chosen. The ranch, the name, the people who carry it with me.
BThe company — or whoever's signing the cheques. Loyalty follows the contract. CMy crew. The men who stood with me when it counted — I don't abandon them for anything.
DMy community — even when my community is a powder keg and I'm the only thing stopping it from blowing. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 3 / 10CONFLICT 03 Someone crosses a line. How do you respond? Every Sheridan protagonist has a line.
What matters is what happens after it's crossed. AQuietly, decisively, and in a way that sends a message to everyone watching. BI outmanoeuvre them legally, financially, and politically before they even know I've moved. CDirectly.
Old school. You cross me, you hear about it to your face — and then you deal with the consequences. DI absorb it, calculate the fallout, and find the move that keeps the whole system from collapsing.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 4 / 10SETTING 04 Where do you feel most in your element? Sheridan's worlds are as much about place as they are about people. AWide open land — mountains, sky, silence. Somewhere you can see trouble coming from a mile away.
BThe oil fields of West Texas — brutal, lucrative, and indifferent to whoever happens to be standing on top of them. CA mid-size city where the rules haven't quite caught up yet — fertile ground for someone with vision and nerve. DA rust-belt town built around a prison — where everyone's life is shaped by what's inside those walls.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 5 / 10MORALITY 05 How do you feel about operating in the grey? Nobody in a Sheridan show has clean hands. The question is how they carry the dirt. AI do what has to be done to protect what's mine.
I'll answer for it eventually — but not today. BGrey is just business. The line moves depending on what's at stake, and I move with it. CI have a code — it's not the law's code, but it's mine, and I don't break it.
DI've made peace with it. Keeping the peace requires compromises most people don't have the stomach for.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 6 / 10AMBITION 06 What are you actually fighting to hold onto? Every Sheridan character is fighting a war. The real question is what they're defending. AA way of life that the modern world is doing everything it can to erase.
BMy position — and the leverage that comes with being the person everyone needs to close a deal. CRelevance. I've been away, I've been written off — and I'm proving that was a mistake. DWhatever fragile order I've managed to build — because without it, everything burns.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 7 / 10LEADERSHIP 07 How do you lead? Authority in Sheridan's world is never given — it's established, maintained, and constantly tested. ABy example and force of will. People follow me because they believe in what I'm protecting — and because they know what happens if they don't.
BThrough negotiation and leverage. I don't need people to like me — I need them to need me. CBy being the smartest, most experienced person in the room and making sure everyone quietly knows it. DBy being the calm centre of a situation that would spiral without me — and accepting that nobody thanks you for it.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 8 / 10OUTSIDERS 08 Someone new arrives and tries to change how things work. Your reaction? Every Sheridan show has an outsider disrupting an established order. Sometimes that outsider is you.
AThey'll learn. Or they won't. Either way, the land was here before them and it'll be here after. BI figure out what they want, what they're worth, and whether they're an asset or a problem — fast.
CI was the outsider once. I give them a chance — one — to show they understand respect. DNew players destabilise everything I've built. I assess the threat and manage it before it manages me.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 9 / 10COST 09 What has your position cost you? Nobody gets to where these characters are without paying for it. The bill is always personal. AMy family's peace — maybe their innocence.
The ranch demands everything, and I've let it take too much. BRelationships, time, any version of a normal life. The job eats everything that isn't nailed down. CYears.
Decades in some cases. Time I can't get back — but I'm not done yet. DMy conscience, mostly. And the ability to ever fully trust anyone on either side of the wall.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 10 / 10LEGACY 10 When it's over, what do you want people to say? Sheridan's characters all know the ending is coming. The question is what they leave behind. AThat I held the line.
That the land is still ours and everything I did was worth it. BThat I was the best at what I did and that no deal ever got closed without me at the table. CThat I built something real, somewhere nobody expected it, and I did it on my own terms. DThat I kept the peace when nobody else could — and that the town is still standing because of it.
REVEAL MY SHOW → Sheridan Has Spoken You Belong In… The show that claimed the most of your answers is the world you were built for. If two tied, both are shown — you're complicated enough to straddle two Sheridan universes. 🤠 Yellowstone 🛢️ Landman 👑 Tulsa King ⚖️ Mayor of Kingstown YELLOWSTONE You are a Dutton — or you might as well be.
You understand that some things are worth protecting at any cost, and that the modern world's indifference to history, to land, to legacy, is not something you're willing to accept quietly. You lead from the front, you carry your family's weight without complaint, and when someone threatens what's yours, you don't escalate — you finish it. You're not cruel. But you are absolute.
In Yellowstone's world, that combination of ferocity and loyalty doesn't make you a villain. It makes you the only thing standing between everything that matters and everyone who wants to take it. LANDMAN You thrive in the chaos of high-stakes negotiation, where the money is enormous, the margins are thin, and the wrong word in the wrong room can cost everyone everything.
You're a fixer — the person called when a situation is already on fire and needs someone with the nerve to walk into it. West Texas oil country rewards exactly what you are: sharp, adaptable, unsentimental, and absolutely clear-eyed about what people want and what they'll do to get it. You're not naive enough to think this world is fair. You're smart enough to be the one deciding who it's fair to.
TULSA KING You are a Dwight Manfredi — someone who has served their time, paid their dues, and arrived somewhere unexpected with nothing but their reputation and their wits. You adapt without losing yourself. You build loyalty through respect rather than fear, though you're not above reminding people that the two aren't mutually exclusive.
Tulsa King is for people who are still standing when everyone assumed they'd be finished — who find, in an unfamiliar place, that they're more capable than the world gave them credit for. You don't need a throne. You build one, wherever you happen to land.
MAYOR OF KINGSTOWN You carry the weight of a system that is broken by design, and you do it anyway — because someone has to, and because you're the only one positioned to do it without the whole thing collapsing. Mike McLusky's world is for people who are comfortable operating where there are no good options, only less catastrophic ones. You speak every language: law enforcement, criminal, political, human. That fluency makes you invaluable and it makes you a target.
You've made your peace with both. Mayor of Kingstown belongs to people who understand that keeping the peace is not the same as being at peace — and who do the job regardless. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ Why Did Sam Elliott Join 'Landman'? Elliott is a veteran of all manner of cinema, television, and drama in general.
But there was something about working with Sheridan that he couldn't quite shake. It seems like many actors, once you join the Sheridan-verse, you never go back.
“There wasn’t any turning Taylor down after my experience with him on ‘1883,’” Elliott said. “He’s such a talented man. I just feel fortunate to be involved with him. I know for a fact that everybody on the show feels the same way.
” Elliott also connected TL’s frailty to his own life, particularly in a difficult scene where TL falls into a swimming pool and can’t get himself out for hours.
“The truth of it is is very true to where I am at this point in my life physically. Not mentally, but physically,” Elliott said.
“I’ve had a hard life. I’ve been an athlete all my life, and I’ve been a laborer all my life, and I’m paying for it now. ” In addition to Elliott, the cast of Landman includes Billy Bob Thornton as Tommy Norris, Jacob Lofland as Cooper Norris, Michelle Randolph as Ainsley Norris, Ali Larter as Angela, Colm Feore as Nathan, and Demi Moore as Cami Miller.
Landman Season 2 is streaming now on Paramount+. 5 10 Landman Like Follow Followed TV-MA Drama Release Date November 17, 2024 Network Paramount Writers Taylor Sheridan, Christian Wallace Franchise Yellowstone Cast See All Creator Taylor Sheridan, Christian Wallace Powered by Expand Collapse
Sam Elliott Landman Season 3 Heartwarming Moments Wholesome Relationship Francesca Xureb Thomas 'TL' Norris Billy Bob Thornton Tommy Norris
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