SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers for the first three episodes of “The Madison” Season 1, now streaming on Paramount+.
For a legendary actor like Michelle Pfeiffer, it seems unthinkable that she would accept a starring role in a TV series without even seeing a script. Then again, it’s a bit different when the offer comes from a red-hot creative like Taylor Sheridan, the mastermind behind hit series like “Yellowstone,” “Tulsa King” and “Landman.”
“Taylor reached out and said he had an idea and would like to meet me,” Pfeiffer says. “So I’m off to Texas, I went to his ranch and had a wonderful evening meeting people. He talked to me about the arc of the character and the concept of the show, and it was very broadly laid out. I said, ‘Okay, when could I read something?’ He said, ‘Well, I’d like to know who I’m writing for before I start writing. So after you commit.’ So we went back and forth for a few weeks after that, and I realized at a certain point I was not going to win this battle. I was either going to have to take a leap of faith or take a pass, and I decided to take the leap because he obviously had a very strong track record.”
Her instinct was right, as the idea in question evolved into “The Madison,” the first three episodes of which premiere on March 14 on Paramount+. Pfeiffer plays Stacy Clyburn, a city slicker who moves her family from New York City to Montana after tragedy strikes. Pfeiffer stars opposite Kurt Russell as her husband Preston, who is decidedly more comfortable in nature. Along the way, their kids grapple with the fact that they have to put down their cell phones in order to get to know the great outdoors.
Russell, who signed onto the project later in the process, says that the combination of Sheridan’s writing and the chance to work with Pfeiffer was a winning proposition.
“What he wrote and the people he wrote for come across,” Russell says. “When I got involved, I knew Michelle was playing Stacy. We have had a great time working with each other, and this was another opportunity to do the same. The scheduling aspect of it was difficult, so it took time, it made some shooting difficult. But every show has its difficulties, and you get through them, and hopefully you end up with what you wanted to end up with.”
The pair first collaborated on the 1988 crime romance “Tequila Sunrise,” and Pfeiffer remembers immediately clicking with Russell.
“He became my comrade-in-arms,” she says. “He was my protector, my confidant, my court jester. He was always there to make people laugh and brings a tremendous amount of joy every day to the set. We had a really nice chemistry acting together. It was just effortless with him.”
Unfortunately, by the end of the first episode of “The Madison,” the pair gets torn apart when Preston dies in a plane crash, inspiring Stacy to process her grief by giving ranch life a shot. Pfeiffer admits that it’s challenging to play such an emotional role and not bring some of it home from set.
“I don’t consider myself method. I would find that really exhausting and boring,” she says. “I like life as well. I love my job, but I don’t want to leave my life in order to do my job. But my husband [mega-successful scribe David E. Kelley] has said to me, ‘You disappear a little bit when you go to work,’ which I didn’t know. I thought I was just tired. With this, it was actually a good thing because the first season takes place over six days. She’s pretty much in the same state of mind the whole six days, so you kind of enter into that and stay there. I wasn’t crying all over the place on the weekend or anything like that, but it’s always there gnawing at you a little bit.”
Christina Alexandra Voros, who directed every episode of Season 1 from Sheridan’s scripts, agrees that it wouldn’t be the same without Pfeiffer and Russell’s emotions and chemistry.
“I think there’s something that happens when you work with a legend where it’s always surprising to see that the reason they are a legend is that they are incredibly good at what they do,” she says. “It’s not an accident that Kurt and Michelle are who they are, because they are so committed to what their craft is. Michelle is so precise about the way she prepares and is so diligent in her understanding of the text, and also allows herself to go to these vulnerable places that are very uncomfortable. You really have to trust your fellow actor and the crew and the energy on set to be willing to go to those places. To have the honor of being able to navigate these scenes with the two of them … there are days where I forget to call cut because I want to see what they’re going to do next. I can’t imagine the show existing without those two specific performances.”
Watch the “Madison” trailer below.
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