Billy Bob Thornton plays Sam Elliott’s son on “Landman,” but is he really young enough to be Elliott’s progeny?
Thornton was born on Aug. 4, 1955, making him 70 years old. His TV dad Elliott is only 11 years older than him in real life, but he sees no problem with that.
“You can look through movie history, and fathers or mothers have been close in age [to their children]. It’s just a thing you do because you’re actors portraying someone,” Thornton recently told The Hollywood Reporter. “If you put yourself in the right headspace, I would find a way to play Sam’s older brother. They would say, ‘But wait a minute, you guys are 11 years apart.’ … But yeah, we never think about that. … It’s all in the way we portray the characters and [series creator] Taylor [Sheridan’s] vision.”
Thornton has a more realistic age gap with the actors who play his kids on “Landman.” Jacob Lofland (Cooper Norris) and Michelle Randolph (Ainsley Norris) are 29 and 28, respectively, making them both around 40 years younger than Thornton (Tommy Norris).
During a January interview with People, Randolph said that Thornton has become a real-life “dad figure” to her.
“I had heard incredible things about him, and so I was excited to meet him, but obviously I’m like, ‘OK, this is someone I’m going to share a lot of scenes with for a really important show. It’s something I care a lot about. I just hope that we have a good dynamic,’” she recalled. “Immediately, he’s the kindest, most genuine human. We went to a dinner and after I left that dinner, I was like, ‘OK, this is going to be great.’”
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Season 2 of “Landman” kicked off on Nov. 16. The show centers on Thornton’s character, who is a fixer for the fictional oil company M-Tex. The season 2 premiere of “Landman” was the most-watched debut in Paramount+ history. While season 3 has not been officially confirmed, Thornton wants to play Tommy for years to come.
During a November interview with USA Today, Thornton said he signed a contract for “four or five years” and wants to continue with “Landman” for “as long as they’ll have me.”
New episodes of “Landman” premiere on Paramount+ on Sundays at 3 a.m. ET.