‘Landman’ Star Ali Larter Says Stepping Back From Hollywood Helped Her Rebuild Stronger

On Not Skinny But Not Fat, Ali Larter shifts the conversation away from career highs and toward the practical decisions that have defined her life—where she lives, how she works, and what she protects.

From filming Landman in West Texas to raising her kids in a small Idaho town, Larter frames her career to host Amanda Hirsch as something cyclical—seasons of intensity followed by moments of pulling back and choosing presence over momentum. She reflects on early fame, stepping away after Heroes, and what it took to rebuild when she was ready to return. 

Below are the highlights from the episode, adapted from Not Skinny But Not Fat

Did you expect ‘Landman’ to become this big?

“No, I mean, I think we thought it would do well in the middle of the country because this is set in West Texas, and it’s a small eye into the dangerous world of oil. Like, I don’t think that we realized it would connect with the coasts, and then on top of that internationally, I think that was the biggest surprise for all of us. I think that also when people started watching this show…and what people know now in the second season is that the heart of the show is the family, you know, so you come back to that. There’s always going to be all these things happening in oil…but what you come back to is this messy relationship and that people, life is complicated, and we try to show that on the show in a very heightened way, through comedy, through love stories, like at least in my Instagram people I follow, I feel like a lot of people are discovering the show now, season two…

…It’s really having a huge moment. The team was super excited that we were so much bigger, like 300 percent bigger for the premiere of our second season, which is very rare to have that. Usually it’s the first one and you kind of trail off and so, look, it’s just a blowaway. I’ve been doing this for a long time. I’m so grateful. I love the show. I love that people are laughing. I look at women and like when women come up to me about the show, I see a sparkle in their eye. It ignited something in them.”

How do you balance filming in Texas with being a present parent?

“I definitely burn at both ends when I’m in production because I never want my kids to not feel that I’m there, and what’s crazy about FaceTime and everything is that I almost talk to my kids more. I wake up in the morning, I talk to my daughter for the hour while she’s getting ready for school. We have dinner together at night and then she’s on set with me when she flies down. Yeah, and my son’s on set…I’m a full-time commuter. I’m on that little jumper with everyone who’s going to like every week, we’re just on it.”

Why did you leave Los Angeles and move your family to Idaho?

“So we moved away when the kids’ schools were shut down and we wanted to go to a ski town because we wanted to be able to be outside with our family when you couldn’t be inside or wear masks. And our daughter was 5 when we decided to go, and [we moved] on her 6th birthday actually. So it’ll be 6 years ago on Thursday. We drove in Idaho and we made this choice. We wanted to go to a place where we didn’t have a ton of friends. We wanted to take this moment as a family because we also know in our business, there’s many times where one of us is away shooting, you rarely get this, where everyone’s home. And we skied together, and we would sit together, and then we realized that the schools were open there, so we were able to put her in kindergarten. And I felt like at that age, during the developmental years, it was really, really challenging for her to be home just with us and not be able to be around other kids. And so being in that environment, she was able to ski all the time with kids and be around people. It was really a chance for us to kind of give them the most normal life in a time of, you know, crisis in our country and in our world. And then we stayed and we fell in love. We fell in love with the schools.”

How has Idaho changed the way you see your life now?

“Part of slowing down our life in Idaho has allowed me to kind of see how precious each moment is…looking at my son who’s 15 and 6’2”, I know he’s leaving for college in four years…this is all very real to me. I think slowing down our life in Idaho has allowed me to put time into it and prioritize it, and I don’t have a lot of space and time for the BS in my life any longer.”

What made you step away from acting after ‘Heroes’?

“One of the big ones was after Heroes, I made a cookbook and I was at this point where I was 33, 34 (years old), and I needed space and time again to figure out who this next transition of myself, who I was going to be without the pressure. And I have always loved cooking, and New York was a big part of it, of like meeting people and traveling, and so I took a couple of years off and had time with my baby, and he was in the house and I will cherish that time forever, and I’m so thankful that I’ve always decided that my family has to come first. It has definitely hurt my career…When you take your foot off the pedal, you have to rebuild again.”

What does working out really do for you?

“I am like getting through my terror of life…I’m working my anxiety out and then I can start the day…I do go to the gym four or five days a week…I just do the Peloton trainers…it would be more stressful to have to meet someone at a certain time…sometimes I’ll do half an hour… sometimes I do 20 minutes…I do fifty-fifty cardio and weights…

…After I exercise and I sweat, I’ve burned off a lot of my fear…I just feel better about myself. Like I’ve already won the day.”

To hear Ali Larter’s full conversation, listen to Not Skinny But Not Fat with Amanda Hirsch wherever you get your podcasts.

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