‘The Madison’: Kevin Zegers says Michelle Pfeiffer was ‘nervous’ about ‘tragic’ but ‘beautiful’ scene

“It’s obviously a tragic moment, but I think for us, it’s been a beautiful moment to kind of build the relationship,” Zegers said.

Kevin Zegers as Cade Harris and Michelle Pfeiffer as Stacy Clyburn in episode 2, season 1 of the Paramount+ series The Madison (Emerson Miller/Paramount+)

From Yellowstone to Landman and beyond, when a new Taylor Sheridan show is released, we pay attention. But it also helps when the series is stacked with incredible actors in front of the camera, and in the case of The Madison (premiering with the first three episodes on Paramount+ March 14, with the remaining three episode being relesed on March 21), that includes Michelle Pfeiffer, Kurt Russell, Matthew Fox, Patrick J. Adams, Kevin Zegers, Beau Garrett, Elle Chapman, Ben Schnetzer and Danielle Vasinova.

While many of Sheridan’s shows put his characters in a position to tackle trauma and hardwhips, The Madison feels the most emotional, as we meet the Clyburn family at a time of grief. And going back to the setting for many of Sheridan’s projects, it leads them to rural Montana.

Spoilers for The Madison Episodes 1-3 are included beyond this point

What is ‘The Madison’ about

At the beginning of the season, we see Paige McIntosh (Chapman) talking on the phone with bags from Hermès and Brunello Cucinelli, when she gets mugged on the streets of New York. She calls her mom, Stacy Clyburn (Pfeiffer), for help, who’s in a meeting with a group of wealthy women about creating the Washington Heights Women’s Centre.

“If you can’t walk on Fifth Avenue, where can you walk?” Paige says, with her mom by her side as she’s getting stitches on her face.

“You can’t. That’s the whole point,” Stacy says in response.

At a family dinner that night, we meet Paige’s husband, Russell (Adams), her sister, Abigail Reese (Beau Garrett), who has separated from her husband, and Abigail’s two daughters, Macy (Alaina Pollack) and Bridgett (Amiah Miller).

It’s at this dinner, frustrated that her kids and gradkids won’t put their phones down at the restaurant, that Stacy steps outside to have a video call with her husband, Preston (Russell), telling him what happened to Paige earlier that day. He’s in rural Montana with his brother, Paul (Fox), spending their days fishing. And as Preston hears about the events of the day, he wonders why the family is still living in New York.

But shortly after that call, tragedy strikes when Preston and his brother are in a plane crash the next day.

After Stacy gets the phone call, the whole family heads to Montana to do the heart-wrenching task of identifying the bodies, before setting things straight there.

In the cabin where Preston stayed, Stacy finds a journal he wrote, detailing what he did in this rural destination and highlighting his favourite spots. And Stacy wants to see all of them, particularly Stacy’s Valley, a spot where yellow grass grows tall, which reminded Preston of his wife’s hair.

But it’s all a learning curve for these city dwellers, who are even apprehensive of the hospitality of the neighbours, Cade Harris (Zegers) and his wife Kestrel (Vasinova).

While many of Sheridan’s shows have a strong patriarch, with Preston’s death, The Madison really leans on the vivacious and tenacious female characters to lead us through this story.

“I am for the girls 100 per cent, and it’s such a breath of fresh air for this story to be told from the perspective of a matriarch instead of a patriarch,” Vasinova, who actually auditioned for The Madison back-to-back with her audition for 1923, told Yahoo Canada. “It’s just an honour to play Kestrel. … She was wild. She was wild back in the day, and then I met [Cade] and fell madly in love, and we have a couple kids, and we just like to do things in a really natural way, and that’s what’s important to us, and he lets me be the woman that I am.”

L-R Kevin Zegers as Cade Harris and Michelle Pfeiffer as Stacy Clyburn in episode 2, season 1 of the Paramount+ series The Madison (Emerson Miller/Paramount+)
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Being in Montana reminded Kevin Zegers of his Ontario hometown

For Canadian star Kevin Zegers, he felt his character, Cade, really spoke to where the actor is in his personal life.

“I just thought this character was so cool,” Zegers said. “I sort of loved what he represented, and just the phase of my life that I’m at right now of trying to just think of things in terms of what I can be useful for, as opposed to what I can extract out of something.”

“And so, as I read it, I was thinking, I love the idea of just this guy who’s trying to be of service in whatever way he can, and that’s kind of what he represents. There’s no ulterior motive. … I’m kind of at that phase of my own life. … And I kind of had to chase this job down in every way possible. So I’m certainly glad that I did.”

As Zegers is originally from Woodstock, Ont., he shared that he found himself able to really slip into the rural Montana lifestyle.

“My uncles are still dairy farmers. My other uncle’s a chicken farmer in Embro, which is outside of Woodstock. … It is very similar,” Zegers said. “You stop for gas on your way to set in Montana, they’re all the same kind of people. Everyone’s a little friendlier, a little more helpful, slightly better manners, for the most part. You’re in the grocery store, and there’s an older lady, people let them go first. It’s like, wow, you’re actually nice. You’re actually paying attention.”

“I slid back into it a little quicker. Because I’ve lived in L.A. for 20 years, I’m definitely more from there than I am from where I grew up, but it did feel very much like a comfortable place for me to be.”

Patrick J. Adams as Russell McIntosh in episode 2, season 1 of the Paramount+ series The Madison (Emerson Miller/Paramount+)
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Taking big risks with comedy

But what’s particularly endearing about The Madison is how Sheridan plays with the series being so incredibly devastating at times, while also giving us very light, even outrageously ridiculous moments.

For example, in Episode 2, Paige goes to use the outhouse, and she’s stung, all over, by hornets, racing inside to get help and screaming at Russell for not telling her about the stinging bugs. And then, in an attempt to kill the hornets, Russell ends up getting stung himself, in the eye.

On the bed, with her bare butt out as she tries to soothe the welts, she calls Russell up to help her apply some cream. And when he gets to her, she asks how his eye is, and he says, “closed.” Then he asks, “How’s the butthole?” And Paige responds with, “Same.”

“They get the kitty, too?” Russell asks, and Paige says, “They got everything, baby.”

From the circumstances of those moments, to the dialogue, they’re a great relief from everything happening in the story. But also, in a unique way, really makes us understand Russell and Paige’s actually quite loving relationship.

“It was such a gift, especially to do it with Elle, because she has such good comedic timing,” Patrick J. Adams told Yahoo Canada in Toronto. “We were still very much in the rest of the show with the feelings and getting to sit front row while Michelle is delivering this once-in-a-lifetime performance, but for us to then get alone and just be able to be a little silly, and make each other laugh, was pretty great.”

“It was both of our first days on set. … So we both were just like, ‘What are we doing? I don’t know. I hope this works.'”

“Patrick probably makes me break more than anyone else, because he’s so great at physical comedy,” Elle Chapman added. “That scene where he runs to the outhouse and then has to run back, and gets injured, was the funniest thing to watch.”

“I was off camera at the monitors trying to stifle my laughter, because he’s … not afraid to take big risks.”

Kevin Zegers as Cade Harris in season 1, episode 3 of the Paramount+ series THE MADISON (Emerson Miller /Paramount+)
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Kevin Zegers, Michelle Pfeiffer share the most impactful scene in ‘The Madison’

But then in the next episode, we get one of the most emotional moments in the whole show.

Stacy and Abigail are in Paul’s truck, after picking it up at the sheriff’s office, and Stacy recommends that Abigail move with her to Montana. Actually, specifically, she says she won’t continue paying for her New York lifestyle, so she either needs to figure out how to afford to live in New York or move to Montana with her mom. Upset about her mom’s response, Abigail gets out of the car.

But now driving alone, Stacy opens the centre console in the truck, where there’s a gun. She holds the gun in her hands and starts sobbing. That’s when Cade comes to the window, after turning around to check on Stacy.

“I have some experience with that solution. My father chose it,” Cade says to her. “The thing about suicide no one talks about is that it’s contagious, you know? Lost a brother and an uncle before it was through with us,”

Stacy denies that being her intention, but he says he’ll hang on to the gun until the grizzly bears really become a problem for her, and Stacy agrees.

“We shot it pretty late in the first season, and Michelle was nervous. We talked about that scene a lot, because obviously it’s a complicated situation,” Zegers shared. “I think when you see someone in their worst moment, which I think Cade has an opportunity with her, he’s sort of witnessing the bottom for her, and this idea that not only does he not judge her, but he sort of communicates his own weakest moment. It sort of informs, as the season goes on, that even when he’s just around, that there’s this idea of, ‘I got you. I understand what you’re going through,’ but in a real, tangible way.”

“And I think for Taylor to write it just informs everything from that point forward, because he’s aware of this lowest moment in her life, and she’s, likewise, trusted him with having seen that. … We’ve now shot a subsequent season, and it’s always just kind of there. I think when you have that with somebody, you’re just bonded by that vulnerable experience of, I, underneath all this, I know this about you, and you know this about me, and I got you. … It’s obviously a tragic moment, but I think for us, it’s been a beautiful moment to kind of build the relationship, because it’s deeper than just two people who know each other.”

There’s still so much story to tell in the first season of The Madison, with the show’s actors really holding us through this emotionally complex story.