‘Awards Chatter’ Pod: Ali Larter on ‘Landman,’ How It “Raised Me to the Next Level” and the “False Narrative” Around…

Ali Larter, the guest on this 650th episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, is a stunning and versatile actress who has had a rollercoaster of a career that is now in its 30th year.

She was a scream queen in House on Haunted Hill, two Final Destination films and three Resident Evil films. She was seductive in Varsity Blues; hilarious in Legally Blonde; and played multiple characters on Heroes. And, in Obsessed, she went toe-to-toe with Beyoncé. But she has never been better than she is on Taylor Sheridan’s smash-hit Paramount+ drama series Landman, playing Angela Norris, the volatile, free-spirited and irresistible ex- and probably future wife of Billy Bob Thornton’s Tommy and mother of Jacob Lofland and Michelle Randolph’s Cooper and Ainsley.

Earlier this year, for the second season of Landman, Larter and her castmates received a best ensemble in a drama series Actor Award nomination. Now, the show is poised to land its first Emmy nominations, perhaps for best drama series and, for Larter, best supporting actress in a drama series.

Over the course of a conversation at the LA offices of The Hollywood Reporter, the 50-year-old reflected on how modeling led her to acting via a game-changing magazine cover; the frustrations she has had, over the years, of trying to find multi-dimensional parts, particularly after giving birth to her two children; how, against all odds, Landman came along shortly after she and her family relocated from L.A. to Idaho; plus more.

You can listen to the full conversation via the audio player above or read excerpts of it — lightly edited for clarity and/or brevity — below.

On appearing on the cover of the November 1996 edition of Esquire as “Allegra Coleman,” supposedly Hollywood’s next big thing…

“They wanted to play a hoax. I think the biggest joke was that people believed it, because nobody actually read the longform article. If you actually read it, you would know that it was a joke, but people were skimming and just going, ‘Oh my God, who is this?!’ And then it started. That was the door that opened, that got me my manager. Any young actor in this business knows the hardest part is just getting in the door — actually, that’s not true, the hardest part is sustaining a long career. But getting in the door is the first step, and that was my moment.”

On her Dawson’s Creek and Varsity Blues costar James Van Der Beek, who died in February…

“He was unbelievably talented. He had such a pivot in his life from this industry, and was able to have these incredibly beautiful children and this wonderful marriage and find some happiness outside of this industry… I’m devastated by his loss, but also going, I’m so happy that he was able to, I think, find some peace and joy in his life.”

On her early days as a scream queen…

“I’m able to look back at those movies and love them now. When I was in the midst of it, it was harder for me, because I wanted to be this really gritty, raw indie actress. But I fought for these roles, I got these roles, and they had tremendous success. They just kept launching me to the next one.”

On Heroes…

“It was really great. With that show, I was digging into Jungian theory. I was going into the shadow side. I was trying to figure out how to play these two sides of this person. So that was getting to really dig in on a network TV show. It was an incredible cast, and I thought it was a really special first season. Then, sadly, what often happens in Hollywood is that writers change, people take that scoop of the Kool-Aid, and you lose the creative vision of what something should be.”

On coming back from giving birth to her children in 2010 and 2015…

“Especially with your first child, you’re looked upon differently after you become a mother. There’s definitely anomalies and exceptions to that rule, but I’ve always been part of the mass of it. I also gained a lot of weight with my children, so nobody believes you’re ever going to look good again. So it takes time to get that back. A year off in this business is a long time. This business is built for you to be part of a machine that continues to work. If you ever take your foot off the pedal, you’re going to be in trouble. I’ve never followed that rule, which means I have to constantly restart my career. But having my children and spending the time home with them will always be one of my greatest choices, and I’m so proud that I did. You never know if you’re going to get it back, but my priorities have always been about my family first. It’s just hard in this business, unless you’re to a certain point in your career where it doesn’t matter, which is the case for very, very few. I always will think of myself as a working actor who’s had extraordinary triumphs and a lot of dry spells.”

On Taylor Sheridan and the process that led to her being cast for Landman…

“I knew him briefly in early life. He was at Howard Fine [the acting studio], and he was part of that whole world with Amy Smart [Larter’s longtime friend]. But I hadn’t talked to him in over a decade. He had had extraordinary success with Wind River and Sicario. It’s funny, after people get success, you don’t want to reach out. Even though you want to say, ‘Oh my gosh, Sicario was brilliant, Wind River was brilliant,’ you don’t want people to think you’re calling them because they’re having success. It’s just not in me to do that. Anyway, this audition came from John Papsidera, who put me in Final Destination and a bunch of different things… It was four pages, and I put them in. Then you wait a couple of weeks. Then I get a callback, and it was eight pages. So then you dig deeper in. I also started to get more information about this character. Then I think I had to do 12 or 13 pages. Then I got invited to come down and test for the show. It literally laid me out in my bed, like in a paralyzed state. I was not well because of the pressure. I’ve never been a good auditioner… I just had to have my call to faith and be like, ‘Girl, you got to go fight for this. You got to pull it together.’ It was 18 pages. I got down there, I walked into a room, and there was 11 women there — 10 other women and me… [Weeks later] We had just bought a house in Idaho at that point, and I was sitting in the driveway, and it was halfway built. I remember — it’s gonna make me cry — I looked down and I saw him calling my phone, and I was just like, ‘Oh my God.’ He’s just like, ‘It’s yours. You’ve had it. You’ve had it the whole time.’ I was just so excited because I knew it was going to change my life. I didn’t know to this level, but I knew I was going to get to work with an Oscar-winning actor [Billy Bob Thornton, who actually won his Oscar for screenwriting], who is just such a profound genius who’s raised my game and made me a better actor. The whole cast elevates it. Stephen Kay [the show’s primary director] has raised me to the next level. I knew I was going to get to work with incredibly talented people, but then the success of it? You’re just like, so much gratitude.”

On the argument from some that Sheridan does not write female characters well, even though he has attracted the collaboration and admiration of her, Michelle Randolph, Demi Moore, Kelly Reilly, Nicole Kidman, Zoe Saldaña, Helen Mirren and Michelle Pfeiffer, among others…

“It’s just a false narrative… I also feel like what he does is, you just don’t see a lot of women in film and television that embrace their sexuality. It just stops at a certain age. I’m always amazed at how shocked people are by it [on Landman], and I’m thrilled, because it’s ridiculous.”

On Sheridan’s general elusiveness…

“I don’t think that you can pin him down. I think that he’s not going to come back into the machine that just wants to break him down. And he wants to work. He’s an extraordinarily hard worker. He’s a brilliant talent. He wants to do it his way. And I think that it’s very hard in our industry to do things your own way when you’re part of the machine.”

On the powerful last scene of Landman’s second season…

“That’s the kind of work that I love to do, the really quiet, intimate moments. We had one take. The sun’s going down. I’m out there looking at the horses. ‘Action!’ He’s walking up behind me. The dialogue in that scene was so beautiful. You’ve got to understand how she wants him to see the world and how much he has. Then you know it’s going to be a trainwreck in the next minute. But when you have that kind of grounded love, it’s so sweet. These incredible Texan sunsets, it’s just so beautiful, and you can just feel it in the air. I hope I get to do more of those scenes. Those are definitely my favorite.”

On how Landman has impacted the way the industry sees her…

“People within the industry have been so complimentary towards me and just really happy for me. They knew it was in there, but I just needed the right writer and the right role. I got this chance, and I was able to rise to the occasion. It’s exciting to be 50 years old and to have it all opened up to me again. I’m not jumping in — I turned down a couple movies… I’m not going to take something that doesn’t feel like it’s going to be the creative experience that I want to have, because I don’t need to right now… I have a show that I want to make. I think the doors are just opened again.”