THE CAST WAS THROWN STRAIGHT INTO THE FIRE — On the set of Landman, nerves ran high and nothing was handed to anyone. One moment changed everything for the actors, and insiders say it shaped the season in ways fans won’t see coming.

Ali Larter reveals what really happened behind the cameras and how the pressure turned the cast into something more than colleagues.

The full story — including the moment that shocked everyone — is being broken down in the comments.

“Landman”’s Ali Larter Says Taylor Sheridan Threw the Cast ‘into the Fire’ on Set: ‘No Handholding’ (Exclusive)

Larter recalls her nerves walking onto the “very high-pressure” set in 2024 and how the cast has now become like family

Emerson Miller/Paramount+

Ali Larter as Angela Norris in ‘Landman’ season 2

NEED TO KNOW

The Landman cast is like a family at this point, but things started off pretty intense according to Ali Larter

She remembers being “thrown into the fire into a very high-pressure, high-octane set” when production began in 2024

New episodes of Landman premiere Sundays on Paramount+

Ali Larter and Michelle Randolph relied heavily on each other when they first arrived in the Landman world.

The actresses play the delightful mother-daughter duo Angela and Ainsley — who are oftentimes the banes of Tommy’s (Billy Bob Thornton) existence — in the Taylor Sheridan series. They first met when production on season 1 began in 2024, and Larter, 49, remembers how intense the vibe on set was, right off the bat.

“We spent a lot of time together, the first season, when there wasn’t handholding,” she tells PEOPLE of her bond off-screen with Randolph, 28. “There wasn’t, ‘You’re doing a great job.'”

“You kind of were thrown into the fire into a very high-pressure, high-octane set,” Larter recalls. Luckily, she had Randolph by her side. “It was really amazing that we had each other to lean on, and so I think that that really formed this bond [between us].”

Emerson Miller/Paramount+

Michelle Randolph as Ainsley Norris and Ali Larter as Angela Norris in ‘Landman’

She gives kudos to Sheridan, 55, who created the show alongside Christian Wallace, for her newfound kinship with Randolph. “Taylor is masterful at casting. He just is. I don’t know how he knows who’s going to get along and what’s going to work and what doesn’t, but it just works,” Larter says.

It helps, too, that Randolph is “an amazing person,” Larter continues. “She’s a talented actress and just, [she’s] the best.”

Sheridan might have thrown Larter and the cast right into things when filming started, but the actress is defensive of the show’s creator — particularly when it comes to criticisms about her and Randolph’s onscreen arcs.

As she previously told PEOPLE, Sheridan is a “provocateur” who “loves to write characters that make people respond, that initiate a reaction, a feeling.” She added, “I think that what’s incredible about our show, and a lot of the shows that Taylor makes, is that they’re all wildly original and authentic to themselves.”

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Ali Larter as Angela Norris and Billy Bob Thornton as Tommy Norris in ‘Landman’

“It’s incredible how Taylor made oil fascinating, and the landscape,” she said. “You would never know that — this is why he’s such a genius — you would never know on paper that this show would be so riveting or so many people would love it, different generations of people who live in different places. That they find a connection to it, I think, is super fascinating.”

She has just as much praise for her other costar, Thornton, 70, who she calls “one of the best actors working in our business.”

“He brings out the best in me,” Larter said of Thornton. “In our world, when we’re working together, there’s just never an inauthentic beat, and that is incredible. I love him so much.”

New episodes of Landman premiere Sundays on Paramount+