SPOILERS: This post contains details about the Landman, Season 2 finale episode ‘Tragedy & Flies’
After their first episode of Landman, Bobbi Salvör Menuez has quickly made waves for bringing some unexpected LGBTQ representation to the Taylor Sheridan hit series.
The actor, who plays Ainsley’s [Michelle Randolph] non-binary roommate Paigyn Meester in the final stretch of Season 2, admitted to Deadline they were “barely familiar with the Taylor Sheridan universe” and its “immense” impact before joining the Paramount+ series, explaining why they were “excited” to bring a new element to the show.
Watch on Deadline
“I’d seen posters, I’d seen flyers, but I actually hadn’t seen the show before,” said Menuez. “So, I didn’t even totally comprehend how big of a deal it was until all those CCed agents on the chain that I don’t even usually talk to are suddenly texting me, ‘Congratulations!’ I’m like, wait a sec. And then I started to devour the whole first season and kind of get in gear for what this is.”
With Season 3 of Landman and several other shows on the horizon, Sheridan is quickly becoming the Ryan Murphy for MAGA audiences throughout the South and Middle America, and the role of Paigyn is no exception to the Yellowstone creator’s sensational recipe for success, that even appeals to some coastal audiences from all over the social and political spectrum.
Seen at first by some audiences as a rage-baiting caricature of a non-binary college student, the ferret-loving sports medicine major Paigyn seemingly has an aversion to being social at risk of tarnishing their “safe space,” so much to the point that they drive new roomie Ainsley to actual tears over the confusion that “they/them” can in fact be used as a singular pronoun.
“Knowing the impact of this show, I just knew there would be a lot of different responses from all sides of the spectrum, and if you look at American politics, obviously this is a hot button [topic],” Menuez noted. “So, I knew that there would be a lot of different responses, but for me, I don’t really look at the comments section. I don’t really look at the reviews. As the actor, my job is to show up, do what I need to do to perform this character in a way that feels authentic and good to me, and in service of the story and the people that I’m working with. And I don’t feel like it’s my responsibility to take all of that in.”
The character’s introduction in the penultimate episode ‘Plans, Tears & Sirens’ did its job in eliciting a response from LGBTQ and anti-LGBTQ audiences alike in the show’s sophomore season.
But the finale ‘Tragedy & Flies’, now available to stream on Paramount+, proves that first impressions are not always correct, as Paigyn keeps Ainsley from developing an injury during cheer camp, and the cheerleader returns the favor by defending her new friend from anti-LGBTQ bullies.
“It might not be what some audience members might have expected, but it’s also just a true representation of contemporary reality. Queer people do exist, they’re gonna keep existing,” explained Menuez. “Sometimes, they might be cranky and not the most friendly the first time you ask them about their pronouns or tell them about their pronouns. But those interactions, at the end of the day, there’s more to the story than that, I think. … I hope I get to learn more soon about if there’s more for Paigyn in this world. That would be awesome.”
Regardless of any agenda Landman writer and co-creator Sheridan might have behind the role of Paigyn, Menuez is a talented non-binary actor building on a diverse repertoire, while playing by the rules of a grueling post-strike Hollywood, with past roles in shows like Girls, Transparent and Euphoria, as well as A24’s Under the Silver Lake, Tom Ford’s Nocturnal Animals and the 2023 Paramount body horror My Animal.
Read on about Bobbi Salvör Menuez’s unexpected addition to Landman, their hopes for Season 3 and building upon their storied onscreen career.
DEADLINE: Tell me about joining this massive Taylor Sheridan show and what the audition process was like.
BOBBI SALVÖR MENUEZ: Well, it’s interesting because the tape came through in a really busy time for me. I was working on different art projects in New York and upstate, and I just have a rule with myself where when auditions come in, I just do them, whether I want them or not. It’s just, to keep that practice feels really important for me. So, I barely looked at it, it was just such a crazy weekend. It was like, my sister’s graduation, I’m in this like weird experimental performance in this upstate biennial, it was a kooky, kooky weekend. And that tape came in, and I literally had to film that audition in a car parked on the street. I was like, “There’s no way I’m getting this one. I’m just not gonna think about it too much.” And then, I think it was just a couple weeks later that I got the call, “Are you willing to cut your hair?” Because my hair was a bit longer at the time, and I’ve had my hair from buzzcut to down to my waist and back again throughout my whole life. So, I don’t have sensitive feelings about that. So, that was a very quick and easy “yes” for me. And the next thing I know, I got the job. I don’t actually watch a lot of TV in my personal life … so, I was barely familiar with the Taylor Sheridan universe and how immense it was. I’d seen posters, I’d seen flyers, but I actually hadn’t seen the show before. So, I didn’t even totally comprehend how big of a deal it was until all those CCed agents on the chain that I don’t even usually talk to are suddenly texting me, “Congratulations!” I’m like, wait a sec. And then I started to devour the whole first season and kind of get in gear for what this is. And then I went down to Texas and went in for the haircut, and got to have a great call with Taylor where he told me about his vision for this character and this evolving relationship with Ainsley. And I connected also with [director, EP] Stephen Kay, who was really like, “If you want to talk about anything, let me know,” and then, we just kind of jumped right in.
DEADLINE: What was your initial response to the character, and have you seen any of the online response to the character yet?
MENUEZ: Yeah, I mean, knowing the impact of this show, I just knew there would be a lot of different responses from all sides of the spectrum, and if you look at American politics, obviously this is a hot button [topic]. So, I knew that there would be a lot of different responses, but for me, I don’t really look at the comment section. I don’t really look at the reviews. As the actor, my job is to show up, do what I need to do to perform this character in a way that feels authentic and good to me, and in service of the story, and the people that I’m working with. And I don’t feel like it’s my responsibility to take all of that in. I find it better. So, I kind of have my trusted people who are sort of keeping tabs and updating me. They’re like, “Oh well, some people are mad about this, some people are mad about that,” and I’m like, “OK, that’s what I would expect.”
DEADLINE: That’s fair. That’s a good way to handle it. Maybe I should start doing that, to be honest.
MENUEZ: It’s not always easy. It’s not easy. It’s so tempting. My partner was like, “Don’t do it. Don’t do it. Don’t do it, girl, don’t do it.” But I didn’t do it, so that’s been really great. I had a cold this week, I had other projects I was working on pre-production for, and I just can’t wait for everyone to see the finale, because it speaks to a different tone.
DEADLINE: I was gonna say, I do like that Paigyn is slightly more reeled in, in the finale. We get to see more of their personality without the pressure of the first meeting. So, tell me about where that will potentially go with Ainsley.
MENUEZ: I have no idea what’s happening for Season 3, and my hope is that I get to be a part of it. I can’t say, one way or the other at this time, but I love getting to see that pivot from these two people who have really different life experiences, clearly started off on the worst foot, and people are triggering each other in all directions. And to me, that first interaction isn’t the only truth of a person in real life, and so of course, that’s not the only truth of the character. So, it’s really nice to suddenly in the finale, have that dimensionality sort of open up, where the reality of one another’s humanity just becomes so much more obvious, and then, the playing field is leveled. And it’s like, “Wait, actually, let’s try again.”
DEADLINE: I like that that pivot as well. What was it like filming in Texas?
MENUEZ: We filmed in Fort Worth. Whenever I leave New York—because I was born in Brooklyn, raised in New York, and I’ve always lived in big metropolitan cities—and obviously, Dallas is a big city, Fort Worth is a big town. But of course, whenever I go to Texas, because I also worked in Marfa, on I Love Dick years ago, so I worked in Texas before. But Marfa is its own kind of little arts community. It’s not the kind of cowboy country that you are suddenly dropped into the middle of, and honestl, I really felt the culture shock of being like, “Oh wow, I forgot cowboys are real.” And I went with some castmates and friends visiting town to go to the rodeo on the weekend. It was my first rodeo, I had never done those things. And it was just really interesting to learn about this other world and just be reminded also, this country is so big and full of so many little different worlds and cultures and culturally specific kind of practices. There’s so much about the rodeo that I don’t know about, but I just could enjoy so much, just the theatrics of it. I’m an actor, I love performance,, and then the rodeo is like theater, it’s theater. I had a really fun time, although it was really hot, so I didn’t really go out too much. I remember trying to go for a walk to some cafe on my first day off, and I was on the phone with my friend who grew up in Austin. And they were like, “What? Don’t walk, call an Uber. You’re gonna pass out.” And I think they might have been right about that. It was really hot.
DEADLINE: What was it like working with the ferret?
MENUEZ: I loved the ferret. The ferret was really funny because I had never interacted with a ferret before, although I think they’re really cute. So, I was pretty excited about that aspect of the show, but they have a weird energy where it’s like, they seem totally narcoleptic, asleep, floppy. The version of the take that is the first introduction, basically like a limp noodle, but then other takes, they suddenly get these like zoomy energies, so it was really funny working with this animal that would just, one minute be truly like a wet noodle, and the next minute like—I have a chihuahua. It’s like the chihuahua before dinner time, so excited, running in circles, so it was really fun. It reminds me of also working with children, I kind of love that bit of unpredictability cause it makes it feel so real too. So, for any scene where there’s that element, it just makes it really easy to be in the reality of the interaction, I think. It didn’t actually smell as bad as I’ve heard they can smell, even though it’s a big moment in the interaction, obviously.
DEADLINE: I loved you in Under the Silver Lake. Tell me about your experience on that movie, because it was a very specific take on LA, with the noir and the urban legends, but also what was it like working with Andrew Garfield and Sydney Sweeney?
MENUEZ: Yeah, it’s so funny because right now, there’s like a micro trend where everyone’s reflecting on 2016, because it was 10 years ago, which I think was when I started filming that. Because when I was looking through my photos, I saw interestingly in that movie, my hair looks quite a lot how it looks right now, but it’s actually a wig, which most people don’t know. But I was in the middle of filming I Love Dick, where my hair was really long, so I couldn’t cut it, although I would have been happy to, as made evident again on [Landman]. But it was a really fun, cool set. I had really liked It Follows, the director’s [David Robert Mitchell] previous film and was really intrigued with this kind of film noir approach to LA. And just working with Andrew was such a dream. He was so lovely. It’s interesting cause that time was actually pre-intimacy coordinators, and we had intimate scenes together, obviously. But he was just so great, we just like connected on a real human level, and so, it made doing these funny striptease, whatever scenes just feel really easy and really comfortable. I just had a great time on that set.
DEADLINE: That’s awesome. Also, a couple of years ago, I interviewed Jacqueline Castel, the director of My Animal.
MENUEZ: Oh yes, which also Paramount put out.
DEADLINE: It’s almost like you did the whole queer hockey romance before Heated Rivalry.
MENUEZ: Right! I should claim that more. Good point.
DEADLINE: What was that experience like? Queer body horror is my sweet spot.
MENUEZ: I can relate. I can relate, like Titane and Raw. I loved working on that movie. Amandla [Stenberg] was a friend previously, and I sent her the script and was like, “You got to read this. I think we could really do something special with this.” And I just really fell in love with the script. Jae [Matthews], who wrote it, is amazing. And I’m excited, she just finished filming her first feature that she also directed with her directing partner. But working on My Animal was amazing because with Jacqueline—and I’ve worked with a lot of first-time directors on their first features as the lead. I’ve done that quite a few times now, and there’s something really special about the energy that a director is giving to their first feature, that level of, this is the most important thing, and I’m going to give it everything. And then to be in that lead position and have that energy to be kind of supporting you as you are invited to do the same is really something that I love. And that movie, what happens in the script, my character has to move through an entire lexicon of emotion, experience, stunts, sex scenes. It’s really the full gamut, and that’s always such a pleasure to receive a role like that as an actor, because for me, I love to challenge myself. I love to be in new situations. I love to push myself and really see what’s possible with this medium and with my relationship to my body and my capacity to use it as a vessel for expression, for empathy generation in an audience. So, I really felt like I had a lot of room to do that on that project, and I was able to really pour a lot in. And it really fed me back. It was heartbreaking that our release happened during the strike, so I wasn’t able to participate in that kind of usual celebratory uplifting of the film process, because that was a really special project to me, for sure.
DEADLINE: It’s really interesting to see you go from an indie queer role like that to something more mainstream like Landman. What has been your experience as an actor, finding that sweet spot that speaks to you?
MENUEZ: I just love to work. I love the work of acting, and the only other project I did last year was a play. It was this off-Broadway contemporary reinterpretation of the Sam Shepard play True West, and I played one of the brothers, and it was super experimental. It was interesting. I was shocked when I got on the set for Landman, because the production of Landman, it’s so big, they’re shooting with three cameras at all times. And especially, when we were shooting everything out on the field, there’s so much room, in a literal sports field, that I never even felt the cameras. They were so far away and sometimes, you didn’t even know what coverage they’re getting. So, I was shocked to be like, it feels like I’m back in the play because the play was in the round, and the cameras are like basically on all sides without getting each other in the shot. And so, I’m always surprised at how each new experience, each new character, each new director, there’s a different flavor, it feels different, and yet there’s something at the essence of it that is the thing that I like. And so, I just love that I get to have this kind of wide range of experience in my career. I feel really, really blessed to say I’ve worked with multiple trans directors in my career, most actors can’t say that. I feel very privileged I get to say that, multiple female directors, which is still is a rare thing. And then to get to say, I also worked with Taylor Sheridan, ho’s like the king of the western and like the king of Paramount, it suggests something different, and yet we’re actually all working with shared material, is my feeling.
DEADLINE: That’s an amazing way to look at it. And it’s also just great seeing LGBTQ representation continue when GLAAD released a study recently that almost 50% of LGBTQ characters are disappearing. So, it’s great seeing that representation pop up in places where you might not expect it, as well.
MENUEZ: Yeah, I was excited by that. It might not be what some audience members might have expected, but it’s also just a true representation of contemporary reality. Queer people do exist, they’re gonna keep existing. Sometimes, they might be cranky and not the most friendly the first time you ask them about their pronouns or tell them about their pronouns. But those interactions, at the end of the day, there’s more to the story than that, I think. … I hope I get to learn more soon about if there’s more for Paigyn in this world. That would be awesome.