00:00This is Varieties for the Love of the Craft, presented by Paramount+.
00:03I'm Emily Longoretta, and we are here with the cast of Landman.
00:08You think you understand how this business works, but you don't.
00:13You have to know the rules of the game and bend them.
00:16And you really have to know them to break them.
00:20Going into this season, what were you hoping that viewers would get out of the show?
00:24This season in particular, I think it was really investing in family.
00:30And in some cases, that was in reconnecting family.
00:34A lot of fans said that they've really enjoyed getting to know the people better,
00:39because this season was more about the relationships within the family
00:43and also getting a better look in the executive branch of the oil business.
00:48It's taking you into a world that most people don't have any awareness of
00:55in dealing with just the dangers of it.
00:59There's a rush, an exhilaration to the risk.
01:04And that rush cost me everything.
01:08And now I do anything I can to avoid it.
01:11Once I started reading the material and knowing the level of writing that we are gifted with
01:16and the kind of cast we are gifted with, my fellow fespians,
01:19I knew that it was going to be an exciting year.
01:21I know who you are, and I know what your money is.
01:26And I can't have it anywhere near us.
01:30It's an incredible group of people to be involved with on both sides of the camera.
01:35I'd had an experience with Taylor before in 1883.
01:39That, I think, was one of the highlights of my 56 or 7-year career.
01:44This, on some level, is every bit as special as that was.
01:49Taylor writes these episodes, but he also knows how he's going to edit them.
01:52After even the first couple episodes in the first season,
01:55I started to really understand the tones and how he knows when the audience is ready for a break
02:01or when they need a laugh or when, you know, we're going to go into, like, a deeper romance
02:06or you need an intimate scene to kind of bear and, like, show the vulnerability within a character.
02:12So I've never been on a show like that where we flip so much,
02:15but it's always grounded within who these characters are and what their relationships are.
02:20The tone of this series is so specific,
02:22and Taylor does such a great job of finding that balance between humor and drama.
02:27Can you talk about, for you, how you go about finding that balance?
02:31If you watch the classic movies, they're a combination of everything that happens in life,
02:36and I think sometimes dramas are over-earnest and they don't have a lot of humor,
02:41and comedies sometimes don't have enough heart.
02:44I think the reason that this show connects with audiences all over the world
02:47is because the characters are unabashedly who they are.
02:51They just say and do what they feel.
02:53I think people react to that.
02:55Enjoy your lunch.
02:57I paid for it with your fucking money.
02:59And then you cut it with the humor.
03:01Which is just how Taylor does his writing.
03:03Tommy and Angela are never just going to be very sweet and having a real deep conversation together.
03:08One of them is going to hit each other, or they're going to crack a joke, or whatever it's going
03:12to be.
03:12Is that a real fucking sword?
03:14That's a real fucking sword.
03:16The humor all really works because it's really grounded in heart.
03:21He knows just right when to bring that relief in.
03:24This is the Broadway misery musical of my life.
03:27Welcome to it.
03:28It's inherent in Taylor's writing.
03:30The words are there.
03:31The dynamics of the scenes are there.
03:33For me, you know, as a great acting teacher, Sanford Meisner said,
03:36live truthfully within imaginary circumstances.
03:39I just like to try to tell the truth.
03:41And I think in Taylor's writing that there's a lot of truth that I can identify with.
03:46You could say I wasted my life and ruined yours, and maybe I did, but through the hope that maybe
03:54she was in there somewhere soon.
03:59Well, Pop, I don't think hers is the only soul that got scrambled.
04:03Everyone's work ethic is, like, beyond.
04:06When you're coming in with that level of respect, you're already kind of digging into who someone's real character is.
04:13All that stuff is very open.
04:14They're shooting three cameras all the time, and so you get a chance to play a little bit.
04:19And, you know, you have the words.
04:20The scenes are there, so you just have to settle in and play.
04:37The best casts often really feel like families.
04:40Is there a moment to you that has happened off set that translated and really bonded you as a cast?
04:46There's an old saying in film, the most important part of the work is the work you do off camera
04:52in support of your fellow actor.
04:54That's the kind of cast that we have.
04:56You know, it's a very supportive, generous cast.
04:58It's all about the work.
04:59There's no ego.
05:00There's just an ease that, I guess, you know, doesn't always happen.
05:04I think it's always a great gift when you have a relationship off screen as well as on screen.
05:11I've worked on projects over the years where that wasn't so.
05:16And it's not so much fun.
05:18And I've always been of the mind, if you can't enjoy this business and you can't have fun when you're
05:24doing this and you're doing it the wrong way, it's kind of that way across the board.
05:28Everybody's there for everybody else, whether it's on screen or off camera.
05:34That makes for a lot of fun.
05:35I'm sorry.
05:36I don't remember the last time I saw people just be happy with themselves, with each other.
05:44We just so all really genuinely enjoy one another.
05:49There is a real genuine generosity and joy that when the day is done, not everybody's racing out.
05:57There's a karaoke place, and I'm not into karaoke, but there's a karaoke place in Fort Worth.
06:05And a lot of the crew like to go out there.
06:08And I usually go with them because it's just such an amazing shit show.
06:13When we all go out there, everybody kind of lets their hair down.
06:17And you get to see your castmates and your co-workers in the crew sort of let go.
06:23And I think that was a great bonding experience.
06:25And we usually go there three or four times a season.
06:34So I think that our chemistry was understanding who we are as real people, and then taking
06:40that kind of moments where we have respect and love for each other and feeding them into
06:43these characters.
06:44It's rarely how that is.
06:46But beyond that, the ensemble, if you want to call it that.
06:51I think all of us work equally well together.
06:53I mean, that's the appeal of the show.
06:57It's all the color that everybody brings to it.
07:00It's the whole piece.
07:02Everybody down the line is of equal importance in this thing.
07:07And they're thought of on equal ground.
07:10We're all there for each other all the time.
07:13It's really a great support group.
07:15And that's, to me, what makes it a joy.
07:18I really do feel the connection and the joy that we are all having.
07:22Just the team that we have, I do feel like it's translating.
07:27It translates onto the screen.
07:29I want success.
07:34Get that for me.
07:35What do you hope the legacy for this show will be?
07:38I hope people remember that you could tell that there was a chemistry among these people.
07:43And that particular chemistry in this particular time in our world, we made an effect on people.
07:50And that we were all characters who were honest, for better or worse.
07:57They were all honest with what they felt.
08:00We are the house.
08:02And in our little world, we're too big to fail.
08:06Now I grow the world.
08:08Francis Ford Coppola always said to me that he feels the measure of a good movie is really like 25
08:12years later.
08:14And so, to me, it's about that longevity, something that has long-term resonance.
08:17It's also unexpected and such a wonderful surprise that it's just connecting on so many kind of different levels.
08:27But obviously, at its core, that it's bringing some entertainment.
08:31You know what?
08:32The only thing I've ever lost in my life is my husband.
08:36Everything else I've won.
08:39And I'll win this, too.
08:43And one more thing.
08:45Don't ever summon me to a meeting again.
08:48From now on, meetings come to me.
08:50We're not curing cancer.
08:52We're not brain surgeons.
08:53We're just entertainers.
08:55And if people get their money's worth being entertained by this show, then we've done the job.
09:01And I think that's really the legacy of it.
09:04And I think that what was not only revealed the first season, but the second season, is that you can
09:09go in and understand the danger of oil in this world.
09:12But that everyone kind of knows what it's like to be part of a messy family.
09:16Or they know what it's like to kind of see one.
09:18But that love, you know, runs real deep.
09:22And so, I think that would be it.
09:23That on our show, like, love runs real deep.
09:25So, if you lose this, and you try to fuck me in any way, the thing you love the most,
09:31that's the first thing I'll take.
09:36What a great way to start a partnership.
09:38Thank you so much for joining Varieties for the Love of the Craft, presented by Paramount+.
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