Landman’s Guy Burnet on Playing Charlie, Taylor Sheridan’s Rule-Breaking World, and Why This Might Be His Favorite Role Yet

If there’s one thing that becomes immediately clear when talking to Guy Burnet, it’s that he is exactly as disarming as Landman wants Charles — or “Charlie,” depending on who’s talking — to be.

Burnet plays the company geologist who enters Rebecca’s orbit with a grin, a pickup truck, and zero interest in playing by anyone else’s rules. 

He’s not impressed by status, intimidated by intensity_, and he is absolutely not the guy who thinks life should be all work and no fun. That energy comes through onscreen, but it turns out it’s not much of an act.

“This is the closest thing to me that I’ve ever done,” Burnet admitted, laughing as he reflected on a career that has often placed him inside more tightly wound characters. “It’s actually hard to be yourself. It’s hard to draw elements of who you are.”

That ease — the sense that Charlie just is — makes his introduction feel inevitable rather than engineered. And fittingly, Burnet’s own path into Taylor Sheridan’s universe was anything but linear.

“I got lucky,” he said bluntly. “I was going through a phase where I was thinking, ‘What do I want to do next?’ And then Taylor plucks me out of the blue and says, ‘You’re going to come and do this.’”

There was no audition marathon or elaborate buildup. It was just an invitation and a vague promise.

“He goes, ‘You’re going to be Indiana Jones.’ And I was like, ‘Cool.’”

Burnet had seen Sheridan’s films but hadn’t yet dipped into his television work. That changed quickly once he watched Landman.

“I loved it,” he said. “And I thought, how lucky am I to be part of something I would actually want to watch anyway? That doesn’t always happen.”

What stood out wasn’t just the writing, but the way Sheridan operates entirely on his own terms — something Burnet connected with on a personal level.

“I think I got slightly disenchanted with the system,” he admitted. “And from my observation, Taylor doesn’t follow the rules either. He does what he does. So maybe it made perfect sense that we met at this point in life.”

Burnet didn’t hesitate when talking about Sheridan’s work ethic, either — and it wasn’t framed as mythology.

“He’s the hardest working human being in the room,” Burnet said. “Whatever the circumstances. I’ve worked out with him in a boxing gym. He works his ass off there, too. It’s just who he is.”

That no-nonsense intensity sits in interesting contrast to Charlie himself, who floats through Landman Season 2 with an almost mischievous lightness. He’s competent, successful, and clearly good at his job — but he also knows when to crack a beer and enjoy the moment.

That balance is intentional.

“He works hard and plays hard,” Burnet said. “That’s the point.”

And yes — the name matters.

While press materials have quotation marks hovering around “Charlie,” Burnet confirmed that it’s not just a stylistic quirk.

“To Rebecca, he’s Charlie,” Burnet explained. “To everyone else, he’s Charles Newsom. Charlie is only what she calls him.”

That small distinction quietly reinforces what Landman does so well — letting intimacy show up in unexpected, unspoken ways.

For longtime fans of Burnet’s work, especially his standout turn as Claude Lambert in Counterpart, this role feels like a natural evolution rather than a departure. Burnet was visibly delighted that the series came up at all.

“You know your shit,” he said, laughing. “Not enough people saw that show.”

Despite a career filled with complex roles, Burnet doesn’t hesitate to rank Landman highly among them.

“This might be my favorite thing I’ve done,” he admitted. “I like watching the show. I like that it’s universal. My mum can watch it. Different demographics can watch it. And when that music comes on, there’s just this comfort.”

Of course, no conversation about Charlie would be complete without addressing that plane sequence — a scene that instantly cemented the character’s charm and chemistry.

“That was the funnest day,” Burnet said. “They built this rig with hydraulics. It was like Disneyland. Like a theme park ride.”

But the ease viewers see onscreen didn’t happen by accident. Burnet and co-star Kayla Wallace made a point of connecting before filming began.

“We met, we talked about life,” he said. “We built some chemistry. And by the time we were filming, we were very comfortable with each other.”

Comfort, in this case, came quickly.

“We shot the bedroom scene naked first,” he added, deadpan. “Let’s just break the ice immediately.”

That comfort carries into how Burnet views Charlie’s place in Rebecca’s world — not as a conquest, but as someone who genuinely knows how lucky he is.

“Man, this girl is so out of his league,” Burnet said. “There’s no way she’s going to want to be with him. And he just… gets lucky.”

Lucky might be the running theme here — lucky timing, lucky chemistry, and lucky alignment between actor, character, and creator.

And judging by how effortlessly Burnet slides into Landman — and how hard it is not to smile whenever Charlie’s onscreen — it’s luck that feels very well spent.

We expect to see more of Charlie and Burnet on Landman. For now, find out what we thought of his latest appearance in our Landman Season 2 Episode 6 review.

New episodes of Landman drop Sundays on Paramount+.