Ali Larter flaunts fitness on Italian yacht getaway

Ali Larter posted a series of photographs from an Italian superyacht vacation on Saturday, each one a small study in how she spends her time away from the set of "Landman." There she was in a metallic nude bikini, sunbathing on a red and white lounge chair with the sea behind her, the two-piece fitted with a ruched bandeau top and a circle keyhole cutout, gold chain detailing along the sides. In another frame, she stood beside her husband Hayes MacArthur at the yacht's rail, both of them posed against the rocky coastline in a black bandeau top and ruffled shorts. A third showed her descending wooden steps in a white lace halter bikini beneath a sheer aquamarine cover-up studded with turquoise and white stones. The carousel also included her in a light blue printed minidress, a flowing cover-up, and—notably—a black Alo sports bra and matching leggings during a workout session in the yacht's gym. She captioned the post with Italian affection: "Adoro l'Italia."

At fifty years old, Larter has become a particular kind of public figure: one whose physical discipline is as much a part of her professional identity as her acting. She plays Angela Norris in the Paramount+ series "Landman," the glamorous, confident ex-wife of Billy Bob Thornton's character—a role that demands she wear revealing clothing with a kind of effortless ownership. The character loves spray tans and blonde hair and the physical presentation of wealth and desirability. To inhabit that character convincingly, Larter has built a regimen that begins before dawn.

In interviews earlier this year, she described the specifics of her discipline without apology or false modesty. She wakes at 4:30 a.m. on Mondays for a thirty-minute run. She eats clean, though she eats—she is, as she put it, "one of those protein mommies," consuming protein throughout the day. Beyond running, she does extensive strength training. The work is deliberate and visible. "I work really hard, OK? I'm not pretending that I don't," she told People magazine in November.

Yet there is something more complicated beneath the surface of these vacation photos and this fitness routine. Larter has been candid about the psychological cost of bikini scenes, which she described as "tough, in a weird way." She does not enjoy filming them. "I don't think there's an actress alive that's like, 'Woo! Got a bikini scene!'" she said. "Nobody wants to do it." For her, they are the hardest scenes to shoot. They are her least favorite. The physical preparation—the early mornings, the protein, the strength training—is only half the battle. The other half is internal. "There is no space in my mind for insecurity," she explained. "I wouldn't be able to do it if I allowed insecurity to creep in."

What she has learned, or what she has chosen to believe, is that the women she finds most compelling are the ones who own their presence entirely. Sexiness, she said, is not only external. It requires an internal ownership as well. Angela Norris owns herself. Larter, in playing her, has to own herself too—to spend time, as she put it, "fighting off my own insecurities, my own anxiety, to be able to put on that bikini and walk into these scenes." The vacation photos, then, are not simply documentation of a fit body at fifty. They are evidence of a woman who has decided that the work—the 4:30 a.m. runs, the protein, the mental discipline—is worth doing.

Production on "Landman" season three is scheduled to begin in late August or early September, with the new season expected to premiere in early 2027. Larter's Italian getaway appears to be a final stretch of rest before that work begins again.