One particular scene in the second season of "Yellowstone" posed a greater challenge for Ali Larter than the rest. The 49-year-old actress has candidly spoken about the physical demands of portraying Angela, the fiery housewife to Tommy (Billy Bob Thornton) in the hit Taylor Sheridan series. However, this latest season introduced a novel kind of challenge.
In episode 9, Angela's daughter Ainsley (Michelle Randolph) heads to TCU for a cheer camp. Although the program lasts only a few weeks, it's a glimpse of what's to come when she starts college shortly thereafter. For Angela, the loss of having Ainsley under her roof is difficult to process.
"Episode 9 was a truly painstaking episode for me to shoot," Larter told PEOPLE. "I think it was one of the toughest scenes."
"Angela feels like it's a loss in her life, with her daughter leaving. I have many friends who are empty-nesters, and I've seen those ugly sobs," she said. In the scene, Larter channelled those "ugly sobs" as Angela cried in her car after watching Ainsley go into her dorm.
"I think that Angela doesn't really feel like she has a purpose without her daughter," Larter explained. "What will her life look like, with her growing up?" Larter says she "just really wanted [the audience] to feel what she felt" in that emotional moment - and she achieved that.
"I've been hearing from all these mamas about being able to see that [moment], and that it made them emotional," she said of the fan response to the episode. "Because that's the reality of it when you raise these babies, and then they take off and start their life, and who are you? What's your identity without them?"
Another aspect that's tough to film? Those bikini scenes, which Larter calls "tough, in a weird way."
"I don't think there's an actress alive that's like, 'Woo! Got a bikini scene!' Nobody wants to do it," she said. "Those are the hardest for me. I don't enjoy them. It's just part of the story that I'm telling, and I'm an actress, so I get on board. But those are definitely my least favorite."
In those moments, the mom of two admitted she has to "spend all this time fighting off my own insecurities, my own anxiety, to be able to put on that bikini and walk into these scenes."
Working with Thornton, 70, on the other hand, is always a highlight. "My favorite is when I get to have a real, honest quiet exchange between Tommy and Angela," Larter said. "I just love that."
The end of the season 2 finale was an example of exactly that kind of scene, and Larter said it "was an important and beautiful way to end the season."
"I live for those scenes," she said. "Because so much of Angela, when I'm playing her, is high stakes, high emotion, something wild is happening."
Seasons 1 and 2 of "Yellowstone" are now streaming on Paramount+.
