The actors tell "" that they pulled from their own relationships with their late fathers for the moving scene.

Landman’s Billy Bob Thornton and Jacob Lofland break down their ‘emotional’ father-son scene: ‘All that was authentic’

The actors tell "" that they pulled from their own relationships with their late fathers for the moving scene.

By Emlyn Travis

Emlyn Travis is a news writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2022. Her work has previously appeared on MTV News, Teen Vogue, and *NME*.

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November 23, 2025 3:01 p.m. ET

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Jacob Lofland and Billy Bob Thornton in 'Landman'. Credit:

Emerson Miller/Paramount+ (2)

**This article contains spoilers for *Landman *season 2, episode 2, "Sins of the Father."**

Billy Bob Thornton and Jacob Lofland are pulling back the curtain on what was going through their minds while shooting that “emotional” father-son moment in the second episode of *Landman*. **

The actors tell ** that they both pulled from their own personal relationships with their late fathers when it came time to film Tommy (Thornton) and Cooper’s (Lofland) unexpected heart-to-heart on the car ride home from visiting Grandpa T.L. (Sam Elliott) at his care facility.

“Oh, man, it almost makes me emotional thinking about it,” Lofland says, tearing up as he reflects on the scene. “Me and him [Thornton] both worked off things that… I just lost my dad last year and he lost his years ago. To have that moment and that understanding is awesome, you know?”

Jacob Lofland as Cooper, Billy Bob Thornton as Tommy and Sam Elliott as T.L. in 'Landman'.

Emerson Miller/Paramount+

He continues, “And that's what makes that scene. Because that's real. That's our emotion. That's our life that we're putting in that.”**

After learning of his mom Dorothy’s death in the season 2 premiere, Tommy brings Cooper — who has just been broken up with and kicked out of the house by his girlfriend Ariana (Paulina Chávez) — along with him to plan her funeral. With the arrangements finalized, the pair visit T.L. to notify him of the funeral date, only for Tommy and T.L. to have a tense conversation about his mom and her lack of support throughout his childhood.

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On the way home, Cooper and Tommy find themselves discussing Tommy's difficult relationship with his parents and the hardships of breaking harmful parenting cycles. It's then that Cooper tells his daad that he loves him and knows that he did his best. The sweet admission is a direct hit to Tommy's heartstrings, with the stern oil exec fighting back tears as he quickly changes the subject.**

Thornton tells EW that the tears that were welling up in his eyes in that scene were real. **

“All that was authentic. I didn't know I was going to do any of that,” he explains. “Those are the best moments, the ones that kind of sneak up on you. And if it says cry on the script, that's usually when I don't. And there's scenes where you would never expect it, sometimes you do. And that's whatever strikes you as a human being, you know.”

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Still, he notes that Tommy isn’t quite ready to break down over all of the non-stop events unfolding in his life just yet. **

“That scene meant a lot, but sometimes you can't go there yet, not only as a person, but as an actor in the story,” Thornton elaborates. “Sometimes you don't want to let the cat out of the bag too quick. And I think that's what that was all about for me.”

Billy Bob Thornton as Tommy and Sam Elliott as T.L. in 'Landman'.

Emerson Miller/Paramount+

*Landman* co-creator Christian Wallace adds that the emotional impact of that moment wouldn’t have hit nearly as hard without having witnessed Tommy and T.L.’s fraught father-son bond earlier in the episode. ****

“That scene, Jacob and Billy play it so beautifully, and Taylor [Sheridan] wrote it so beautifully,” Wallace says of his co-creator. “I think it's something that will really resonate with people, because it makes you reflect on your own parents and your relationship with them.”**

The journalist and Boomtown podcaster acknowledges that “all we can ask of our parents, really, is that they do their best” in life. **

“And in some ways they'll succeed, and in some ways they won't, but that's life, like no one can do it perfectly,” he adds.

“There is no such thing. And so for Cooper to be able to say that to his dad and Tommy to internalize it… it's a really special moment.”****

*Landman* is streaming now on Paramount+.

Original Article on Source

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