Michelle Pfeiffer has worked with some of the biggest names in Hollywood and starred in some of the greatest films ever made.
Yet her latest project, The Madison, a strange neo-western and family drama, might be her most personal work yet.
Created by Yellowstone’s own Taylor Sheridan (who else) and co-starring Kurt Russell as Pfeiffer’s husband Preston, the show follows the Clyburn family, who relocate to the Madison River valley of southwest Montana following a family tragedy.
To say anymore would spoil the show’s surprises, but needless to say, Pfeiffer is sensational as Stacy, the matriarch of the family.
It’s a bold and powerful performance, and Pfeiffer makes Stacy as wise as Ellen from Age of Innocence and (to use a less intellectual reference) as fierce as Selina Kyle in Batman Returns.
Indeed, it’s perhaps unsurprising then that her ‘fierceness’ scared one of her co-stars.
Specifically, Patrick J. Adams, who plays Stacy’s son-in-law, Russell. He told Metro ‘it was sort of terrifying’ meeting an icon like Pfeiffer.
‘I’m still scared of Michelle,’ he laughed. She’s the most lovely human being in the world, but I get starstruck by people. I love acting. I’ve spent my whole life doing it. So, I admire these artists who have given some of the most iconic performances in the world.
‘Every single day I worked with Michelle Pfeiffer, I had to talk myself off the ledge. She hates it. She just wants to be an actor. She’s so down to earth, and she just wants to play the scene.’
In fact, Adams was so nervous that he tried to humanise her by watching her movies, something he admitted was a ‘terrible mistake’ as all it did was make him more aware of what a legend she was.
Of course, for her part, Pfeiffer had no idea of the effect she was having on her co-star.
‘Oh, you know, no, I didn’t,’ she said when I asked if she was aware of the effect she had on Adams. ‘Oh, Patrick. I love Patrick so much, and he’s so talented, so good.’
His initial nerves aside (he’ll undoubtedly be thrilled to read her praise), Adams has nothing but admiration for his co-star, admitting there’s a maternal side to her.
‘She makes sure everybody’s taken care of,’ when asked what she brings to the set beyond her acting talent. ‘She makes sure that everybody’s happy, that everybody feels heard and seen, and that we all have a stake in this [show].’
Adams wasn’t the only star on the show to sing Pfeiffer’s praises. Beau Garrett, who plays Abigail, Stacy’s older daughter, also said ‘she’s a little scary’ but admitted she ‘adores’ Pfeiffer.
‘She makes you be a better actor and a better person,’ she explained. ‘There’s not one scene with her where, if I didn’t just take a moment and listen. She carries so much grace and professionalism, kindness and generosity and her craft and who she is as a human. We just immediately bonded.
All of this will be music to Michelle’s ears as she told me the theme of family and trauma was a big reason she got involved with the project.
‘I think it’s about a lot of the things that really matter most to people when you drop all of the kind of BS that we think is important,’ she said.
In America, because of what we’ve been through, it’s really shifted people’s perspective, because trauma does that. So sometimes it’s a death in the family, sometimes it’s something traumatic in your country. Sometimes it’s like the Palisades fires or Covid, you know?
When I think back, I’m like, “We were in our houses for a year, and we didn’t leave”. That was crazy, but all of those experiences as a nation and a world really shift our perspective, to where family is at the top of mind with everyone.’
Russell, meanwhile, admitted to me that what he found interesting about The Madison was how it explored femininity through a more rugged lens, describing it as ‘sort of Taylor Sheridan’s female gaze.’‘
‘It’s something I haven’t seen for a very, very long time, especially in television,’ he said. ‘It’s modern, and I think it’s really adult in that way, and it’s relatable for a lot of people.’
Garrett also believes The Madison is ‘very different’ from Sheridan’s previous work.
‘I think there’s a similarity in the family dynamic, which he really has a talent for navigating, but this is a much quieter show, not in a bad way, in a way that kind of makes you sit and think. It’s also quite funny,’ she explained.
Finally, Matthew Fox, who plays Kurt’s brother Paul (Yes, there are a lot of characters in this; it’s a Taylor Sheridan show, what do you expect?), told us that it was Sheridan’s scripts that appealed to him, but it was the opportunity to work with Russell that really appealed.
The Madison Review
Have you ever been introduced to someone by a mutual friend who, on paper at least, you should get on with, but for whatever reason, the moment your friend leaves, there’s nothing but awkward silence?
That terrible icy feeling in the bottom of your stomach that you just don’t click with someone.
That’s me with The Madison, a show that looks handsome, is impeccably cast, and has an engaging hook, but failed to engage me.
‘I had some conversations with Taylor, and he was telling me about the
project, about what he wanted it to be, and was talking to me specifically about the character,’ he said.
‘We had a couple of good conversations, and then he mentioned that he was talking to Kurt about playing the older brother, and that was really enticing to me, because I had worked with Kurt in 2014, but we had an absolute blast, and we felt like we just had a lot in common as people.
‘I was really excited by the notion of us having the opportunity to play these two guys. Then I read the scripts, and the scripts were really beautiful and really moving.’
With all that in mind, it’s clear The Madison has all the ingredients to be another incredible Sheridan show, but if the cast’s admiration is anything to go by, it’s Pfeiffer who will be the reason people come back for more.
The Madison premieres globally on Saturday 14th March, with three episodes exclusively on Paramount Plus.
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