Randolph and Lofland play siblings Ainsley and Cooper Norris on 'Landman,' and Lofland told PEOPLE they're "best friends" off-screen
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NEED TO KNOW
- In Landman, Michelle Randolph’s Ainsley and Jacob Lofland’s Cooper are always at each other’s throats
- Randolph, 28, admitted that both she and Lofland, 29, have called creator Taylor Sheridan to try to get answers about why their characters, who are siblings, have so much conflict
- “It’s really hard to hate each other, ’cause he’s one of my great friends,” Randolph said
If you're a Landman fan wondering why Ainsley and Cooper hate each other so much, you're not alone.
Michelle Randolph and Jacob Lofland's brother-sister duo on the hit Paramount+ series are constantly at each other's throats — which is ironic considering the actors are quite close in real life — and it's a conflict that the actors themselves have questions about.
"I get asked this all the time," Randolph, 28, said on the Today show on Tuesday, Feb. 10, when Dylan Dreyer asked about the animosity between her character and Lofland's Cooper. "And we don't know [why they hate each other]."
In fact, Randolph revealed that she and Lofland, 29, have "both called Julia Moore Taylor [Sheridan] and been like, 'Can you give us something to work off of?' It's really hard to hate each other, cause he's one of my great friends."
For now, Randolph said her understanding of the tension between Ainsley and Cooper is that "they are mirrors for one another."
"They each stand for everything the other person opposes," she said. "So it's fun. I don't have that dynamic in my real life, so I get all my anger out at Cooper."
Emerson Miller/Paramount+
Ahead of the season 2 premiere in November, Lofland told PEOPLE that he and Randolph clicked immediately after they were cast as siblings.
"As soon as we met, we got along," he said, echoing what Randolph said on Today. "We're best friends. We love each other."
Despite that lingering question, Randolph has nothing but love for Sheridan, 55, who cast her in Landman after she starred in the Yellowstone prequel series 1923.
"Honestly, Taylor Sheridan takes chances on actors, and he's one of the few people I feel like in the industry who really does that and has given us this opportunity, and I just am eternally grateful for him," she told PEOPLE in 2025.
"He made my dreams come true. I tell him that every time I see him," Randolph admitted, though she said Sheridan isn't exactly receptive to the praise. "He's like, 'Michelle, stop. I get it.' I'm like, 'Thank you.' But he really did give us something."
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Emerson Miller/Paramount+
As Ali Larter has said previously that Sheridan is a "provocateur" when it comes to the worlds he creates. Larter, 49, plays Ainsley and Cooper's mom, Angela Norris, on the show.
"He loves to write characters that make people respond, that initiate a reaction, a feeling," Larter told PEOPLE of the Yellowstone creator. "And I think that what's incredible about our show, and a lot of the shows that Taylor makes, is that they're all wildly original and authentic to themselves."
"It's incredible how Taylor made oil fascinating," she praised. "This is why he's such a genius — you would never know on paper that this show would be so riveting or so many people would love it, different generations of people who live in different places. That they find a connection to it, I think, is super fascinating."
Landman seasons 1 and 2 can be streamed on Paramount+.
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