Martha Plimpton as Sheriff Vela Thorne standing outside in uniform in The Lowdown Season 2 Image via FX Networks Add Collider on Google Add as Preferred Source Follow on Google Discover By Christina Radish Published Oct 29, 2026, 1:00 AM EDT Christina Radish is the Senior Entertainment Reporter at Collider. Having worked at Collider for over a decade, her primary focus is on film and television interviews with talent both in front of and behind the camera. She is a theme park fanatic, which has lead to covering various land and ride openings at the Disneyland Resort and Universal Studios Hollywood , a lover of all things The Muppets and Fraggle Rock , and a huge music fan, for which she judges life by the time before Pearl Jam and the time after. She is also a member of the Critics Choice Association and the Television Critics Association . Sign in to your Collider account Like Like follow Follow followed Followed Listen Thread Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap Editor's note: The following contains some spoilers for The Lowdown Season 2, Episode 4
In Episode 4 of Season 2 of the FX series The Lowdown , entitled “Raw Milk,” we’re introduced to Sheriff Vela Thorne ( Martha Plimpton ), a county political figure connected to the corruption Lee Raybon ( Ethan Hawke ) is investigating. The two cross paths when Lee makes his way to a hog contest where the sheriff is mingling with the community, and some raw milk leads to a memorable interaction that puts the journalist on her radar.
Collider recently got the opportunity to chat with Plimpton about joining the Tulsa, Oklahoma-set series and just what kind of sheriff her character is. During the interview, she discussed Vela’s very tight Wrangler jeans, how much fun she’s having playing such complicated women across various projects, her very well-behaved sheep co-star, the kind of sheriff she is, and the collaborative environment showrunner Sterlin Harjo creates on set.
COLLIDER: I love this show. I also love a character with a memorable introduction, and there’s something fun about meeting your character while she’s putting on her cowboy boots with her gold jewelry and her nails and her jeans. And we see her just being charming with the locals. What did you find most interesting about Sheriff Vela Thorne? What were you told about this woman and how she fit into this season?
MARTHA PLIMPTON: I read the script. I love (creator) Sterlin [Harjo] and, obviously, Ethan [Hawke] is an old friend. I was working in Madrid or Lisbon at the time, I can’t remember which, and I just thought, “Hell, yeah, I want to go and do that. Yeah, I’ll commute between Madrid and Tulsa for a couple of months. Why not?” Look, I don’t recommend that commute. It’s a little bit long. But I was really thrilled to do it. I love this world. I love Tulsa. I love Oklahoma. I’ve worked there before. In fact, I’ve worked in the same two small towns that we shot in. It felt like the easiest choice in the world.
Martha Plimpton as Sheriff Vela Thorne standing outside in uniform in The Lowdown Season 2 Image via FX Networks Did you get to have any say into her look, or was that very clear on the page?
PLIMPTON: Yeah, absolutely. Because I was working on multiple things at the same time, I couldn’t really change up my look too much. I came onto The Lowdown relatively late in the season. They had already been sho…