What happens in the Permian Basin “affects everyone in the world in a visceral way,” observed Christian Wallace, co-creator of the TV series “Landman.”
“I felt this area was overlooked,” he said at the Permian Basin Water in Energy conference dinner. “I feel it’s important to share the stories of West Texas with the rest of the world.”
The Andrews native, who earned degrees from Texas State University and the University of Galway in Ireland before returning home, began sharing stories of the people he encountered while working as a roughneck. After writing for Texas Monthly magazine, he began his “Boomtown” podcast because, as he explained, the podcast allowed interviewees to speak for themselves.
“To me, the point is how do you make someone in Ohio or further care about the Permian Basin? You have to humanize it,” he explained.
Growing up in Andrews, he told the audience oil isn’t abstract, it’s an elemental substance most residence come in contact with on a daily basis.
In the Permian Basin, towns live and die by the price of oil, he pointed out. Oil powers the world, and it shaped him as a storyteller, he said. He decided not just to tell stories about West Texas but to make West Texas a character in his work.
He worked with Taylor Sheridan to turn his “Boomtown” stories into the TV series “Landman,” which has drawn fans worldwide. Wallace recalled being with star Billy Bob Thornton in Austin when former President George W. Bush arrived at an event and came over to tell Thornton he was a fan.
Turning real life into fiction is tricky, Wallace acknowledged.
“Our mission is to entertain, but also to honor the underlying truths of the people we’re representing. We try to infuse authenticity wherever we can.”
The actors are put through a roughneck school, working alongside real roughnecks, he said. At one point, the actors were doing the work themselves, he added. The crews — from costumers to camera crews — are committed to being as authentic as possible.
Some of the more outlandish scenes are based on real incidents, according to Wallace. The cartel plane landing on a highway came from a Texas Rangers report. There was also an actual well explosion that killed three generations of a family. And the pipe rack incident in the first season — he said it actually happened when cellphones were available, and the injured man was able to speak to his wife before he died.
Real-life roughnecks are constantly amazed at how hard the actors and crew members work, he said.
“Television is like the oil industry — long, 12-hour days out in the elements, challenging work for the crews. You spend months on a project without knowing how it will turn out,” he said.
It is a huge honor to share the Permian Basin with the world, he said.