Michelle Randolph Defends Landman Character ‘Sparking Conversation’

Michelle Randolph knows Landman viewers are confused by her character Ainsley’s behavior — but she has no regrets about how she chose to play her.

“It’s hard to not be aware of it,” Randolph, 27, told The Hollywood Reporter

on Sunday, December 22. “But I disassociate and the thing is, I got the script. I read it. I had my moments, my thoughts.”

Randolph, however, doesn’t disagree that Ainsley’s actions can be confusing. “Some of the things that Ainsley has to say are shocking and there were moments where I thought, ‘I don’t know how I’m going to pull this off,’” she admitted. “I want to find the most human version of this character that I can, and I work really hard at doing that.”

Despite the online backlash, Randolph notes that she sticks to what’s on the page.

“My job ended when I finished my last day on set, and then I released it. The show went out,” she continued. “I can’t tell people how to interpret my character, but at least it’s sparking conversation. And I’m really proud of the show that we made.”

In Landman, which premiered on Paramount+ in November, Billy Bob Thornton plays a corporate fixer for an oil titan (Jon Hamm). The West Texas-set drama has life-and-death stakes but its Thornton’s scenes with Randolph, who plays his 17-year-old daughter, have gone viral for moments such as her talking to her father about her sex rules while walking around his house — which he shares with two men of similar age — in bikinis and her underwear.

“I worked with a dialect coach, a movement coach and an acting coach and I just studied like crazy. I had about a year almost to prep for her,” Randolph told The Hollywood Reporter on Sunday about her approach to Ainsley. “It was incredibly helpful to kind of sit with that character. I worked really hard to find ways to justify her behavior and make a full human out of something that doesn’t always seem like what a 17-year-old would say, but people like that exist.”

First appearing in Taylor Sheridan‘s 1923 series, Randolph said Landman “required 10 times more prep” for her.

“I wanted to be very careful about the way that Ainsley comes across. There’s only so much that I can control, but you also can control a lot as an actor,” she shared. “And just being around Ali [Larter] and Billy [Bob Thornton] and Jacob [Lofland] and being in Texas really helped create this full person that Ainsley is. She has this free essence about her and she’s wild, and I loved every second of it.”

Randolph urged viewers to give Ainsley the space to evolve, saying, “She’s 17 and she’s growing. I think she gets it more than the audience gets to see. There are moments where your realize that she can be, not manipulative, but she knows how to play her dad, and also her mom. She knows how to get what she wants. She loves her family.”

She concluded: “She is figuring out who she is and meeting different peers and going to school. She’s not just the bratty young daughter; she is a person. We get to see 5 percent of who Ainsley is. Hopefully as the show goes on, we get to see all of who she is.”

New episodes of Landman premiere Sundays on Paramount+