\n\t\u201cI said, \u2018Great, have him send the script,’\u201d Pfeiffer recalls to The Hollywood Reporter. \u201cThey said, no, there\u2019s no script. You have to go to Texas and meet him, and he would like to talk you through the story and your character.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tSo Pfeiffer hopped on a plane to Texas and found herself sitting with Sheridan at his Bosque Ranch outside Weatherford, Texas, discussing what would become the role of Stacy Clyburn in The Madison<\/a>, the standalone Paramount+ series (not in the Yellowstone-verse<\/a>) that Sheridan has described as his most intimate work yet.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cHe had a general outline, an overview of a story of this affluent family based in New York who really don\u2019t want for anything. And tragedy strikes. It fractures the family. They end up in Montana trying to recover. And it\u2019s tender and visceral and unexpectedly comical at times. Ultimately, they are pulled back together in ways that they never anticipated,\u201d says Pfeiffer of their conversation.<\/p>\n \n\tShe says she was told very little else in terms of specifics, including more details about her character, Stacy. Then she left. <\/p>\n \n\t\u201cHe wanted to know who Stacy was before he started writing. I wanted to know who Stacy is before I committed. And so we went back and forth like that for a little while, and it became clear to me I wasn\u2019t going to win this battle,\u201d she says with a laugh. \u201cSo I asked Helen Mirren<\/a> to speak to me about her experience [with 1923<\/a>].\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tMirren was one of Sheridan\u2019s many A-list lures to television for the Yellowstone prequel 1923, where she played Dutton matriarch Cara Dutton for two seasons. \u201cI have to know something concrete about this guy, this project,\u201d Pfeiffer says of what she asked Mirren. \u201cAnd she just glowed; she couldn\u2019t say enough nice things. She said the scripts were great, the productions were perfect. She was having the time of her life; she loved Montana. So I took a big leap of faith and I committed. I thought, \u2018Well, the guy has a pretty darn good track record.’\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tPfeiffer, who will soon be seen in the Apple TV series Margo\u2019s Got Money Troubles, said that when The Madison came along she had been wanting to do something in television. \u201cI\u2019d been watching all this amazing work being done, and getting really envious!\u201d she says. So, she committed and came on board.<\/p>\n \n\tFilming on The Madison didn\u2019t begin until September 2024, and Pfeiffer didn\u2019t get a script until about four weeks before they started shooting.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThat was new territory for me,\u201d she admits. \u201cThis idea of starting and not getting the script until a month before we started shooting. I always prep for months in advance. You look at a script and chart it all out, what the journey of your character is. Here, you don\u2019t know what the journey of your character is because you only get a couple scripts at a time. So I was nervous.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tPfeiffer credits Yellowstone veteran Christina Voros, who directed all six episodes of The Madison season one<\/a>, for helping her through Sheridan\u2019s process. \u201cShe had to do a lot of hand-holding with me, and I learned to trust her immediately,\u201d says Pfeiffer. \u201cIn our initial conversations, I think she thought, \u2018What have I gotten into with this one?\u2019 (Laughs.) It was a complete and utter joy being directed by her, and I know the entire cast felt that way.\u201d<\/p>\n
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