The Truth About Ali Larter & Billy Bob Thornton's Real-Life Relationship

On the hit Paramount Plus series "Landman," veteran actors Billy Bob Thornton and Ali Larter star as divorced couple Tommy and Angela Norris. Obviously, these are fictional characters, and the stars of "Landman" have different partners in real life. However, that's not to say there aren't some similarities between the actors and the characters they play. For example, Ali Larter's fashion sense is just as bold as Angela's, never mind the fact that she's every bit as stunning as the character, too. And according to "Landman" lead Thornton, his real-life relationship with Larter actually isn't all that different from their dynamic on the show.

Thornton opened up about his relationship with Larter during an appearance on "CBS Sunday Morning" in November 2025. "She is the one who wants to go to the best restaurant, get the fanciest thing. She's dressed up, looks like a million bucks all the time," he said, adding that he prefers to dress down and go to bars that are decidedly less fancy than the restaurants Larter frequents. "She's like, 'Babe, listen, you're number one on the call sheet. I am not letting you go in that dump again.' ... She leads me around the ear in real life, too, and I love every minute of it," he said.

During the interview, Thornton also made it clear just how much he admires Larter as a performer and a colleague. "The second I met her, I was like, 'Okay, I get it. I know why you cast this girl,'" the "Fargo" alum said. He went on to proclaim that his performance in "Landman" would not be what it is without Larter acting opposite him. And from the sound of things, the feeling is mutual.

Ali Larter similarly had high praise for "Landman" co-star Billy Bob Thornton during her own interview with "CBS Sunday Morning" in November 2025. "Are you kidding me? It's like a masterclass every day," Larter said of working with Thornton, adding, "You know, the thing about Billy is he just — he won't have an inauthentic moment."

The "Final Destination" alum went on to share how she and Thornton worked together to develop the relationship between their formerly-married "Landman" characters, explaining that what viewers see on their screens is actually quite different from how their dynamic was depicted in series co-creator Taylor Sheridan's initial scripts. "The characters were originally just written where [there] was a lot of vitriol. We were fighting all the time," Larter said of the early "Landman" drafts. According to the actress, she and Thornton made the decision to play Tommy and Angela Norris' relationship as being a bit more amicable and rooted in mutual respect, despite all the hard feelings between them. 

But while Thornton and Larter are similar to their "Landman" characters in terms of their respective sensibilities and how they contrast, it's clear that their real-life relationship is far more amicable than Tommy and Angela's, given just how much the actors gush about each other. In other words, we don't think Thornton has to worry about Larter actually throwing dinner plates at him. But as Larter confessed during a November 2025 appearance on "Jimmy Kimmel Live", she did accidentally cut him with the breakaway prop plates they used. Whoops.