Jacob Lofland says quitting college and going to work as a roughneck for the oil and gas company where his father is a well-respected fixer seems like the right move for his character Cooper Norris in Landman Season 1.
"He knows this is a possibility. The thing that he doesn't know is the dangers and the work that comes along with it and what he is going to have to sacrifice and do to make it to that point."
Based on Christian Wallace's Boomtown podcast and created by Yellowstone mastermind Taylor Sheridan, the drama is set in the dangerous, but lucrative world of Texas oilfields. It wraps up its first season Sunday on Paramount+
Most of the actors were sent to a roughneck boot camp before filming began, so they were familiar with this landscape and authentically able to tell this story.
"It definitely helped us have an understanding of what we were doing. We wouldn't have been able to do [the job] without it. We had to learn those skills before we were able to even step foot on this set," Lofland recalled."We had one full day before we were able to go to the well -- just safety and learning what things do. It's definitely high stakes when you're there and you have to make sure that it runs as a well-oiled machine should. Everyone needs to know their place and what they're doing."
The show is meant to be great entertainment, but Lofland hopes it also reminds people where the energy they use comes from and how hard people like the characters depicted on the show have to work to make it available.
The actor described Cooper's relationship with his hardworking father Tommy (Billy Bob Thornton) and his outrageously self-centered mother and sister Angela and Ainsley (Ali Larter and Michelle Randolph) as "very complicated."
"They are a very loving family and we're all still learning that as we go. It's a building process and, for whatever has happened before, this might be a rebuilding of that," Lofland said, referring to his parents' divorce and reunion, and the sibling tension between Cooper and Ainsley.
"It's all fresh for all of us and I don't think Cooper knows which way this thing is going to go."
Paulina Chavez plays Ariana, a young widow whose husband dies working on an oil well supervised by Tommy.
Cooper puts his job and life on the line to help her -- much to the outrage of her dead spouse's friends and relatives.
"I couldn't put the scripts down," Chavez said.
"I think it gives you so much insight of the oil industry and the people who are directly affected by it. Everybody's affected by it, but especially the oil-rig workers and their families."
Kayla Wallace plays Rebecca, the ruthless lawyer sent to make a financial settlement between Ariana and the oil company regarding her husband's death.
Rebecca works closely with Tommy and is furious with Cooper for advising Ariana about how much money she should ask the company for.
Wallace pointed out that family is a strong theme across Sheridan's many hit shows, including Yellowstone, 1923 and 1883, and Landman is no exception.
"There's a throughline, a heartwarming aspect to Landman that I think is beautiful," she said.
Her character is an outsider who doesn't always see eye to eye with the Norrises, which was fun to play.
"She carries so much strength and confidence with her and finding that was the journey for me. It's a dog eat dog world," she said. "The world of being a lawyer -- and oil and gas, too -- it's the Wild West."
