Michelle Pfeiffer and Kurt Russell Tease Major “Twists” in Season 2 of ‘The Madison’

Michelle Pfeiffer is grateful Taylor Sheridan didn’t already have a script when he first approached her about wanting to write a part for her.

“As scary as it was not having all of the scripts before I started, it’s probably a blessing that I didn’t because I would’ve been so daunted by where I had to go every single day,” said Pfeiffer, who stars as widowed matriarch Stacy Clyburn in The Madison, during a screening of the Paramount+ drama at The Ross House in Los Angeles on Nov. 5. “Grief comes in all different ways and, certainly by my age, I’ve had a few things to grieve about; I’ve lost a few people. And, for some reason, I just tapped into something.”

The series reunites Pfeiffer with Kurt Russell nearly 40 years after they co-starred in 1988’s Tequila Sunrise, though it took some time for the pair to actually shoot together on set. Russell portrays Preston Clyburn, Stacy’s husband, who is tragically killed in a plane crash in Montana with his brother Paul (Matthew Fox) in episode one. Through flashbacks of mostly phone calls between the couple, audiences get a glimpse into the loving relationship the pair had before Preston’s demise, as he spent a great deal of his time out west while Stacy remained in New York City, where their daughters, played by Beau Garrett and Elle Chapman, also reside.

“I was fortunate in that I had the monitor to look at because I was going to go off of Michelle’s pace; she was setting the pace for all the scenes that we were going to do,” Russell said of building their characters’ chemistry. “I needed to see how Stacy was being built and what Michelle was doing as far as taking Taylor’s concepts and words and making them into her version. Interestingly enough, when I read [the script], I could only see Michelle, and it was so clear to me. You can take a pretty good guess at how someone’s going to play [the character], and if you’re in tune with that person, then you’ll be close.”

When it came to their first day on set together, Pfeiffer admits she was “a little nervous,” but also grateful to have her old friend with her. “It was actually a very difficult shoot for me, and Kurt was always there to talk anything through with me, to support me,” she said. “I felt like I had an ally.”

Shooting in big sky country felt like home for Russell, who’s resided in Colorado for the past several decades. For Pfeiffer, however, whose character travels to the western region to bury her husband with her daughters and their families, the rugged landscape proved as challenging for her as it was the Clyburn ladies.

“Stacy’s journey is actually a little close to my experience of being in Montana shooting this because it was really rugged — extraordinarily beautiful — [but] you actually weren’t there at the most beautiful time of year. And we didn’t have a lot of the sort of typical comforts that you might have, at least not within reach,” Pfeiffer explained. “In the summer, it was brutally hot, and then there were dust storms, and all kinds of things. But you had the grit, you had the dirt in your mouth and in your hair and your eyes, so it lent a reality that I think really worked. It was challenging, but I was really happy to be there.”

The primary drama in season one centers on Stacy trying to get everyone around her to understand what she’s experiencing emotionally following Preston’s loss, especially her daughters, whose individual relationships with their father complicate their own grief. It’s Stacy’s unconventional therapist, Dr. Phil Yorn, played by Will Arnett, who reminds her that only she can give herself permission to feel and do as she pleases when she briefly returns to her luxury lifestyle in Manhattan. Yet in the final moments of the season one finale, Stacy flees her Upper East Side comforts without her family’s knowledge and returns to the place she feels most connected to her husband with nothing but the clothes on her back: the Madison Valley.

The scene teases the adventure that’s to come in the series, which CBS greenlit for a second season from the outset due to Russell’s schedule. The cast shot the first two seasons together, and a third season was announced in April.

“I can tell you one thing: I think the scripts in season two were even better than in season one,” Russell said. “I thought that some of the specifics that take place are stronger in terms of twists … and looking at the other characters, I think that they all grow fabulously.”

Added Pfeiffer, “I think things get more and more challenging, and the reality of trying to rebuild a life … the relationships are more complicated. The family’s bonds are sort of being torn apart and rebuilt at the same time, so I think, believe it or not, it’s even more dramatic.”

Watch the full Q&A in the video above.