Oil be back: Billy Bob returns for the second series of Landman

Billy Bob Thornton has never been interested in justifying the morality behind making a show about the oil business in West Texas.

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The 70-year-old actor, who stars as Tommy Norris in Taylor Sheridan's gritty and dark drama Landman, says you can make a show about any corporation because they are all “moneymaking machines”.

“If they found another way to transport oil underwater tomorrow, the oil guys would get into the water business. It’s not that they worship oil; they're businessmen,” says Thornton, whose previous films include Fargo, Goliath and Bad Santa.

Heroes star Ali Larter, 49, who portrays Tommy’s wife Angela in the Paramount+ series, agrees and adds: “This show was based on a podcast that Christian Wallace did called Boomtown, and he’s from West Texas. When you watch our show, the guys who are on the oil rigs actually work on them and come in to be a part of it. And so, there’s so much truth to the eye into this world.

“It's not my job to judge it or to look at that side of it. I'm here to tell an authentic, true story. I’m also really attracted to flawed characters and I don’t want things to be perfect. I want to find out what the interesting parts of a story are and try to portray that as authentically as possible.”