If there’s one thing Kayla Wallace wasn’t expecting when she signed on for Landman, it was to share a scene with a live snake. “I just assumed it would be CGI,” she laughs. “I thought, there’s no way they’re bringing in a real snake. But sure enough—100% real.”
The snake, one of two on set in Fort Worth, Texas, was handled by professional wranglers and kept behind plexiglass. “It was totally safe,” she insists, “but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t absolutely terrified. I kept thinking it was going to somehow learn to jump.”
That sums up a lot about Landman—the latest Taylor Sheridan creation, set in the oil fields of West Texas. It’s slick, tense, and grounded in the dangerous real world of oil drilling. Wallace stars as Rebecca, a fiercely intelligent attorney who doesn’t mind going toe-to-toe with the good ol’ boys of the industry—especially when one of them happens to be Billy Bob Thornton.
“From the moment I got cast, I just thought, okay, I need to soak up every single second of this,” she says. “The attention to detail on Taylor’s shows—there’s just nothing like it. Every crew member, every camera operator, everyone knows exactly what story they’re telling. There’s a reason his shows hit the way they do.”
That story in Landman includes a collision of power, money, and morality—an oil boomtown saga that forces Wallace’s character to challenge every system she walks into. “Rebecca walks into a room full of men who underestimate her,” Wallace explains. “She’s not just holding her ground—she’s grabbing the case by the coat and dragging it in her direction.”
Episode four, she says, is where Rebecca’s full force finally hits. “It’s one of my favorite days I’ve ever had on a set,” she says. “There’s a scene where she basically says, ‘You think they hired me because I’m pretty?’ and from that moment on, she owns the room. It’s her declaration of war.”
There’s also a lot of actual learning involved—about the industry and its very real dangers. “I dove into figuring out how this stuff actually gets out of the ground,” Wallace says. “How common the accidents are, how the families deal with it. It’s a dangerous business, and Landman shows a version of that that’s very eye-opening.”
The series pairs her with Thornton, whose unpredictable energy she found thrilling. “Billy and I would run a scene a little before we shot, but we kept a lot of it live,” she says. “On Taylor’s shows, you often shoot the rehearsal. You hop on set, and it’s go time. He gives you so much to work with. He’s so open, so grounded—and just perfect in the role.”
Even though Landman deals in heavy subjects—climate, corruption, and the cost of progress—Wallace says it also has its moments of dry humor and chaos, especially when Rebecca finds herself dining with Thornton’s character’s family. “It’s like she’s watching a circus,” she says. “This dysfunctional family with love and madness—it’s totally foreign to her. I think she’s a little bit intrigued.”
If you’ve seen Wallace before, it’s probably from her long run on When Calls the Heart, or one of her many Hallmark Christmas films. On When Calls, her character recently “went off to Nashville,” a plotline Wallace hints isn’t necessarily finished. “There’s a chance you might see more of her,” she teases. “She’s been working on the suffrage movement in Nashville.”
Ironically, Wallace herself has never been to Nashville—but she’s got reasons to want to go. Music’s been part of her life since she was a kid. “I’ve always had a piano next to me,” she says. “Writing comes in waves. Sometimes it’s every day, sometimes I don’t touch it for a month. But it’s always there.”
She’s got songs she hopes to release one day—though she admits, “It’s vulnerable. As an actor, you’re telling someone else’s story. When it’s your own, it takes more time to be ready.”
Music also weaves into her acting process. “Sometimes I’ll listen to hip-hop as loud as I can in the car before set, just to get into a certain headspace,” she says. “Other times, if I’m filming something really dark, I’ll use music to pull myself out of it. I once blasted Christmas music in September after a day of shooting a kidnapping scene—it totally reset me.”
Wallace’s blend of warmth and intensity makes her a perfect fit for Taylor Sheridan’s world of stoic antiheroes and quietly defiant women. She’s already battled rattlesnakes, oil executives, and Billy Bob Thornton—and she’s not backing down anytime soon.
“Rebecca walks into every room like she’s got something to prove,” she says. “But the truth is—she already has.”
Watch the interview above and then check out the trailer below.
