This ‘Landman’ Star Played a Beloved Actress 30 Years Ago — But She Wasn’t Real
In Landman Ali Larter's Angela Norris is a force of nature. As Tommy's (Billy Bob Thornton) ex-wife, now, actual wife again, she sows chaos, takes chances, and is an all-around great time. At 49, Larter is a hugely successful actress, obviously famous for Landman, but also shows including Creepshow and Curb Your Enthusiasm. But, in 1996, in a strange magazine hoax, she pretended to be an actress who didn't exist at all. And that hoax partly helped her career level up.
Recently, Larter spoke to Jesse Tyler Ferguson on the Dinner's On Me Podcast to talk about her experiences on Landman and that 1996 hoax article from Esquire.
In 1996, a cover story for Esquireboasted a profile of Allegra Coleman, the new "Dream Girl" of Hollywood. The story was written by Martha Sherrill and featured prominent photographs of a person who was, supposedly, the new it girl actress, who had ties to David Schwimmer and Deepak Chopra. But "Allegra Coleman" wasn't real at all, though the photographs were of then-20-year-old Ali Larter.
"They really made it look like it was a profile on this rising actress," Larter says on Dinner's on Me, pointing out that she was "just the model who was playing the actress." According to Larter, the motivation for the article was "Hollywood's fixation on making it girls," and it was "their [Esquire's] big old joke."
However, Larter points out that the upshot of the Esquire hoax was that "People bought it, and I got a manager, and then, other doors opened."
So, thanks to the Allegra Coleman hoax, Ali Larter's star really did rise. We might not have had Angela on Landman if it weren't for this stunt, and for that, fans can be grateful.