- - Ali Larter Looks Back on Breakout Role in “Varsity Blues: ”'What Began It All' “ ”(Exclusive)

Virginia Chamlee, Julia MooreNovember 14, 2025 at 12:55 AM

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Jerod Harris/Getty; Paramount

Ali Larter -

Ali Larter is reminiscing about her role in Varsity Blues, more than two decades after the film premiered

Speaking to PEOPLE in an exclusive interview, Larter said it was "a feel good movie"

Still, she wanted to use the role to showcase her character's "vulnerability," she said

Ali Larter is reminiscing more than two decades after the release of the hit teen 1999 sports drama, Varsity Blues.

Speaking to PEOPLE for an exclusive interview ahead of the second season of Paramount+ series Landman, Larter, 49, said that the movie helped pave the way for all her projects since.

"Varsity Blues is what began it all, and it was a really feel good movie ... I think it was a simpler time in a way and I think that, again, it was a feel good movie, but I love that even for Darcy, I was able to show her vulnerability," Larter said of her character in the movie. "This was a girl who was trying to find her way out and then you see her deeply embarrassed and crying over the choices that she's made for herself as a young girl."

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Varsity Blues revolved around a high school football team and the tough coach who would do anything to win. James Van Der Beek starred as Mox, the quarterback of the team who stands up to his abusive coach, played by Jon Voight.

Larter is featured in one of the film's most famous scenes, in which her character tries to seduce Van Der Beek's Mox while wearing nothing but a whipped cream bikini — even though his character is dating another woman, played by Amy Smart.

Larter told PEOPLE: "Look, for me as a woman, for every role that I've ever been in, I always try to find that centerpiece in them that makes them break or that's driving them because usually, it's what's not in the script, I'm going to try to figure out how to bring it into the movie."

Larter currently stars as Angela Norris in Landman – created by Taylor Sheridan – which exploded on Paramount+ in November 2024, becoming the platform’s biggest premiere in two years. The TV drama dives deep into the gritty, high-stakes world of the Texas oil industry, drawing inspiration from the acclaimed Boomtown podcast.

Paramount

Ali Larter, Varsity Blues

Larter's character is the playful and seductive on-again, off-again wife of Billy Bob Thornton's Tommy and she's faced criticism over how sexual her storylines and costumes have been onscreen.

As Larter told The Hollywood Reporter, "Nobody’s putting me in a position that I’m not comfortable being in."

on People

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