‘Landman’ Star, Paulina Chávez, Says She “Allowed Herself To Be Terrified” While Filming Graphic Scene: “Your Body Doesn’t Differentiate”

It was hard to watch, and it sounds like Landman star Paulina Chávez, who plays Ariana, had just as hard of a time filming it.

Of course, Landman has become another hit Taylor Sheridan show, and it has a star-studded cast featuring Billy Bob Thornton, Demi Moore, Ali Larter, Jacob Lofland, and Michelle Randolph, among others. Viewers were excited to see the curtain pulled back on the oil industry like never before, and that interest carried over into Season 2.

The Season 2 premiere of the Taylor Sheridan show holds the title of the biggest season or series premiere ever for Paramount+. More than 9 million people viewed the first episode of the second season in the first few days it was available on the streamer. Needless to say, there was a lot of hype going into the show’s sophomore run… and even though the second season has been lackluster in the eyes of some viewers, people are still tuning in to see how the story unfolds.

But episode 9, which just aired this past Sunday, was full of surprises… I felt like more happened in this episode than has transpired in the entirety of Season 2. But some of it was pretty dark, including the horrific sexual assault scene that included Ariana, who is played by Paulina Chávez.

In case you haven’t watched the episode yet, you might want to scroll onto the next article, but if you did watch, then you were probably just as traumatized by it as I was… the scene brought every woman’s worst nightmare to life, and in conversation with The Hollywood Reporter, Paulina says she “let herself be terrified” while filming, but it was obviously not easy at all:

“I let myself be in the moment, and allowed myself to be terrified. I needed a minute after that first take of my shirt being ripped and my pants being pulled down. Your body doesn’t differentiate between what’s real and what’s fake. Not a lot of people realize that’s the hardest part of acting — having to tell your body, ‘Hey, you’re fine.’ Your body carries a lot of trauma.”

She said she had no idea there would be a scene like that this season, and she immediately called Jacob Lofland, who plays her onscreen boyfriend Cooper Norris:

“I did not get a heads up. As soon as I get the email of the episode, I immediately open it and start reading. When I got to the end of the script, I called Jacob immediately… we have an amazing team of cast and the crew and our stunt department and we were very much in good hands. It’s a woman’s worst nightmare for that to happen — in any way shape or form.”

She also said that she spoke with Taylor beforehand, and he promised her they wouldn’t do anything she wasn’t comfortable with. She adds that everything was completely rehearsed and filmed in sections with the stunt department to make the scene as smooth as possible.

Understandably, she “needed a minute” after the first take, because she says your body doesn’t “differentiate between what’s real and what’s fake” so that made it all the more difficult:

“It felt so real, even though it wasn’t. It felt very real and I needed a good amount of time to prepare for the next take. After that first take, it was a little bit easier for me to be able to differentiate what’s real, what’s fake. But that first take really stuck with me.”

Paulina did also explain that her scene partner, Mike Harkins, who plays her attacker, is a very “sweet” guy in real life, and he would apologize to her before every scene for what he was about to do and say. Overall, the scene was certainly intense, but sounds like it was a powerful growth moment in her young acting career. I personally can’t even imagine having to do something like that for work, but she was incredible in that scene, and it looks like this is going to become a big part of the storyline both in the finale episode this weekend, as well as Season 3.

A lot of people seem to dislike Ariana and her story with Cooper, but there’s no denying how impressive Paulina was in this episode and I give her a ton of credit for even agreeing to do it… that was obviously incredibly difficult, and I don’t think it gets harder than filming something like that as an actor.

It looks like we’re in for a wild episode in the season finale this Sunday: