According to Deadline Michelle Randolph was playing a Dutton bride-to-be Elizabeth Strafford in Paramount+ series 1923 when the creator of Landman Taylor Sheridan asked her for audition for Billy Bob Thornton’s daughter Ainsley Norton. Within 24 hours she had promise of a second job once the first season of Yellowstone was over. Turns out that role became her breakout role and has proven Randolph levity to a dangerous role of pumping oil in West Texas.
Randolph explains playing a 17-year-old teenager with a MILF for a mom and a dad who really doesn’t want to be his daughter best friend. Randolph states “We were in the middle of 1923 and he called me to say, ‘there’s this project Landman, there’s this character Ainsley, and I want you for it, but there’s a catch. I need you to put 18 pages of dialogue on tape by tomorrow morning. And she has an accent.’ I was still in 1920s Elizabeth mode, but I locked myself in a room for the entire night and just studied. I tried to find the character but just let go of the accent. I was like, I’d rather not do an accent than do a bad one. So I put it on tape and then I booked it the next day. It was like an adrenaline rush. I think I found the character that first night. She’s morphed a little bit, but really the bones of her was there from my initial take on her.”
Randolph goes into further details about the 17-year-old she plays and her age .” She’s 17. I’m 10 years older. Honestly I didn’t think much of it because I think I do look young and I often get asked where my parents are — not all the time, but it does happen sometimes when I open my front door and they’re like, ‘are your parents home?’ I think it’s typical for actors in their mid-to-late twenties to audition for high schoolers like many of my friends do. I think what makes Ainsley a little different is the fact that she’s actually around her parents instead of being at high school.”
Randolph explains what it’s like working with Ali Larter (Obsessed,Legally Blonde) . “We are. I love working with her. It doesn’t feel like I’m at work. We just get along so well. Our scenes are energetic and fun and silly and there’s a lot of comedy. That’s the energy on set with her every day.”