Varsity Blues, Final Destination and Heroes alum Ali Larter says tenacity and a convincing accent were crucial to playing outrageous Texas gold-digger Angela Norris in the new drama, Landman.
"It's like the dialect coach and the preparation and then finding the confidence to really let her live in all her glory and that was the mental game for me and the challenge, for sure."
New episodes of the Paramount+ series stream Sundays.
Based on Christian Wallace's Boomtown podcast, the drama follows characters -- from roughnecks to billionaires -- who are involved in the oil and gas industry in West Texas.
Making up the dysfunctional Norris family are Tommy (Billy Bob Thornton), the overworked, stressed-out, but highly skilled fixer for an independent oil company; attention-seeking Angela, the estranged wife who has just returned to Tommy after her lucrative second marriage ends; Tommy and Angela's son Cooper (Jacob Lofland), who is learning the family business from the ground up: and his sister, college-bound Ainsley (Michelle Randolph), who is determined to marry a rich quarterback.Larter describes Angela as an "emotional tornado."
"She feels everything 110% from whether she's cooking her Bolognese, Michelin-star dinner, she's redecorating the house, or she's on the stair-master," Larter added.
Angela is also a survivor, according to Larter.
"She's someone who has been through -- with Tommy -- the boom and the bust, and it's affected their lives," she said.
"She's seen her life crumble before and known that she's had to put it back together, so one side of her you might see so bright and shiny, but there definitely is the pain of what she's experienced in her life."
