Landman‘s Michelle Randolph had her work cut out for her when knowingly playing “super unlikable” roles in several Taylor Sheridan shows.
Randolph, 28, was asked by costar Demi Moore in a joint Interview Magazine profile published late last month about her experience with “a mix of some feminist negativity” and praise for her characters in 1923 and Landman.
“It’s all of the above. I’ve had to stop letting myself get defensive over my character because when you spend so much time in someone else’s head space, you start to understand their logic,” she explained. “For Ainsley [on Landman], I couldn’t be more different than her, but I also adore her. I like to say she’s not dumb, she just has limited life experience, and we’re seeing her in her most formative years.”
Randolph appreciated the challenge, adding, “How lucky to play a character who is continually evolving. It’s challenged me in a lot of ways — what is on the page is so different than what you see on screen. I’ve tried to add in how genuine and sincere she is so there are more redeeming qualities.”
While discussing her divisive Landman character, Randolph explained how she built out the role.
“I think her mom kept her in a bubble for a reason, and that’s not necessarily her fault. If that continues into her early 20s, then that starts to become her fault. But right now, she hasn’t had any independence,” she noted. “I didn’t realize this about myself, but two of the characters that I’ve played in Taylor’s shows — 1923 and Landman — have, on the page, been super unlikable. Maybe that’s just my perception.”
She continued: “I thought, ‘Oh, my gosh, people are going to despise these characters. What can I do to make them likable and for people to be able to see them from my perspective?’ And so I worked really hard at it. That’s why I think with Ainsley, her being sweet is so important, or else she’s just this bratty teenage girl who has no redeeming qualities.”
Moore, 63, who plays Cami on Landman, asked Randolph whether she felt people “are ultimately getting” her perspective, to which Randolph replied, “It’s really mixed. People either love or hate the female characters on Taylor’s shows.”
Despite the backlash, Moore defended Sheridan’s approach.
“But that’s what’s juicy about the fact that they’re so nuanced. They aren’t only one thing,” she noted. “Like you, I also feel like [Cami is] evolving. We just started to get to know her, and we only know her as this grieving widow who’s been thrust into having to rescue a potentially dying company. But we don’t really know everything yet of who she is. And that’s one of the brilliant things about Taylor’s writing — it always takes these unexpected turns. It’s like he’s building a house.”
Randolph acknowledged that it can be “challenging to have a character” and “have no idea what’s going to happen” with them.
Landman, which premiered in November 2024, introduced Randolph, whose teenage character went viral for moments such as her talking to her father about sex 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 in December 2024 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.”
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 you 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.”
At the time, Randolph acknowledged that Landman viewers were confused by Ainsley’s behavior.
“It’s hard to not be aware of it,” she explained. “But I disassociate and the thing is, I got the script. I read it. I had my moments, my thoughts.”
Randolph, however, didn’t disagree that Ainsley’s actions could 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.”
New episodes of Landman premiere Sundays on Paramount+.
