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At the red carpet premiere of The Madison, Taylor Sheridan's new Paramount+ show, Kurt Russell describes the series as the kind of show that "just gets under your skin really quickly" — and I couldn't agree more. The Madison follows the Clyburn family, led by Michelle Pfeiffer as Stacy, who relocate from New York City to the Madison Valley of Montana after the death of their father and husband Preston (Kurt Russell).
And it's no surprise that a show all about family led the cast to form their own family bonds. "We all just really bonded and became a second family to each other and it was incredibly serendipitous because this job's already a dream come true," Amiah Miller (who plays Bridgette) says.
"People always say when they do these interviews, like, 'No, we all get along and we hang out on weekends,' but my lived experience is that is not usually the case," Patrick J. Adams (Russell McIntosh) adds. "We're still sort of obsessed with each other, which really creates a really great dynamic when you get to work."
Keep reading for Brit + Co's exclusive interview with the cast of The Madison, airing now on Paramount+.
The cast of 'The Madison' can't get enough of each other.
Emerson Miller/Paramount+
Kevin Zegers (Cade Harris) agrees that the tight knit environment lends itself to a strong chemistry onscreen. "There's 10 of us or 12 of us there, and the crew all live there. We all go hiking or we go out, it's a very communal vibe," he says.
In addition to long days on set, "my memories are going hiking and then having breakfast with people and just getting to know [them], and I think that's probably what translates in the show, especially as it goes on. We just finished the second season, but this idea of history with people [comes through onscreen] and I think that just innately happens when you spend a lot of time with people."
"We really just feel like we're at camp up there," Danielle Vasinova (Kestrel Harris) says. "You get to know people on a different level."
Beau Garrett spills on her onscreen connection with Michelle Pfeiffer.
Paramount+
In addition to Kurt Russell and Michelle Pfeiffer, we see Beau Garrett (Abigail), Matthew Fox (Paul), and Elle Chapman (Paige) make up the Clyburn family. I resonated a lot with Beau's character Abigail, and both her stubborn eldest daughter mentality and her desire to belong.
"She wants so badly to take care of her mother and to be there for her mom," Beau tells Brit + Co. "[Stacy] never feels like she can be supported and how disappointing is that as a daughter to know that your mother can't count on you. And so I think that there's just a lot of things about her that I learned as I went that she really was much more of a failure in her mother's eyes than I think she ever knew. I think she did know that, but she couldn't quite figure out how to be better and to prove herself."
"As much as she loves Stacy, she is also terrified and wants so badly to just feel loved as well," she continues. "She's lonely like her mom is lonely. You know, they're very parallel in how they are, but they can't quite seem to be together."
And Kurt Russell and Matthew Fox dive into family dynamics.
Paramount+
To build that family dynamic, Kurt Russell pulled from his real-life relationship with Goldie Hawn. "Both Michelle and I, for starters, we've lived with a partner who has brought that constant feeling of love, and within that, you've made a family," Kurt shares. "And to have that massive tragedy, or I should say as large a tragedy as it is, for this family to now have to go and experience a whole different world...it's heartbreaking, you know, but it's very adult, it's very real. And I think it's been it's been captured and it's very beautiful."
Preston's relationship with his brother Paul (Matthew Fox) is also wrought with an unexpected mix of pain and love. "I think that Paul is someone who is in a lot of pain if he focuses on it because he has this loss and I think he doesn't share that with anyone," Matthew Fox reveals. "There would be things that I will share with my brothers, but there's so much about how that has to happen for it to be right. And I love the way that Taylor approached that relationship, the way that men deal with each other, but more specifically how brothers deal with each other.
"Kurt was amazing, and it just felt right and organic, and even though the work can be hard sometimes emotionally, the process is always easy with Kurt," he adds. "He has a really fluid way of transferring between hanging out when the camera's not rolling and then sliding in to the thing that we're trying to create the illusion of, and I appreciate that."
But don't worry: 'The Madison' also has some very funny moments.
Paramount+
But despite the emotion and the pain that comes in the story, there are also more than enough moments to make you laugh. "I had so many moments where I was dying laughing at Patrick's take on Russell," Elle Chapman says. "I'm always laughing, but, especially the hornet scene when I'm upstairs in the loft...Patrick's so good at physical comedy and you're such an easy person to laugh at because you're so ridiculous. But, yeah, that was, that was a really, really fun day."
"That was so silly, that sequence, and we were all there for it too," Patrick agrees.
And the cast didn't just work with one another. They also got to work with horses! "They gave me my horse right when I got there in pre-production, and he was like, 'That's my guy,'" Kevin Zegers says. "And so the days I wasn't working, I was riding. And so most of my experience with being in Montana has been like, I go hang out with him. We go ride. It's a huge part of being out there for me. In between seasons, I'll fly to wherever he is and go hang out with him for a couple of days just because he's just the best horse ever."
Cheers to 'The Madison' season 2!
Emerson Miller/Paramount+
And even though the cast has finished filming season 2, they still keep in touch thanks to a very active group chat. "We have a group chat called Clyburn & Co," Elle says. "I think you came up with it, Patrick."
Patrick did in fact come up with the name, and he adds that "We've kept Kurt and Michelle off Clyburn & Co, and we felt that that given the give them a little break of messages. There's a separate, more official thread — I don't even know if that's named. We're trying to keep it cool."
"My phone's blowing up throughout the day!" Amiah Miller says. I can't wait to see the way this chemistry comes through even more in season 2.
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