Kurt Russell Dies in Episode 1 and Michelle Pfeiffer Says It Was All Worth It. Here is Why

SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers for the first three episodes of “The Madison” Season 1, now streaming on Paramount+.

For a legendary actor like Michelle Pfeiffer, it seems unthinkable that she would accept a starring role in a TV series without even seeing a script. Then again, it is a bit different when the offer comes from Taylor Sheridan, the mastermind behind hit series like “Yellowstone,” “Tulsa King,” and “Landman.”

“Taylor reached out and said he had an idea and would like to meet me,” Pfeiffer says. “So I’m off to Texas, I went to his ranch and had a wonderful evening meeting people. He talked to me about the arc of the character and the concept of the show, and it was very broadly laid out. I said, ‘Okay, when could I read something?’ He said, ‘Well, I’d like to know who I’m writing for before I start writing. So after you commit.’ So we went back and forth for a few weeks after that, and I realized at a certain point I was not going to win this battle. I was either going to have to take a leap of faith or take a pass, and I decided to take the leap because he obviously had a very strong track record.”

Her instinct proved right. The idea evolved into “The Madison,” the first three episodes of which premiered March 14 on Paramount+. Pfeiffer plays Stacy Clyburn, a city slicker who moves her family from New York City to Montana after tragedy strikes. She stars opposite Kurt Russell as her husband Preston, a man decidedly more at home in the wild. Along the way, their kids grapple with a life that requires putting down their cell phones and getting to know the great outdoors.

Russell, who joined the project later in the process, says the combination of Sheridan’s writing and the chance to work with Pfeiffer was a winning proposition. “What he wrote and the people he wrote for come across,” he says. “When I got involved, I knew Michelle was playing Stacy. We have had a great time working with each other, and this was another opportunity to do the same.”

The pair first collaborated on the 1988 crime romance “Tequila Sunrise,” and Pfeiffer remembers immediately clicking with Russell. “He became my comrade-in-arms,” she says. “He was my protector, my confidant, my court jester. He was always there to make people laugh and brings a tremendous amount of joy every day to the set. We had a really nice chemistry acting together. It was just effortless with him.”

By the end of Episode 1, however, the pair is torn apart when Preston dies in a plane crash, pushing Stacy to process her grief by giving ranch life a shot. Pfeiffer admits it is challenging to play such an emotional role and not bring some of it home from set.

“I don’t consider myself method. I would find that really exhausting and boring,” she says. “I like life as well. I love my job, but I don’t want to leave my life in order to do my job. But my husband has said to me, ‘You disappear a little bit when you go to work,’ which I didn’t know. I thought I was just tired. With this, it was actually a good thing because the first season takes place over six days. She’s pretty much in the same state of mind the whole six days, so you kind of enter into that and stay there.”

Director Christina Alexandra Voros, who helmed every episode of Season 1 from Sheridan’s scripts, says the show simply would not be the same without both performers. “There are days where I forget to call cut because I want to see what they’re going to do next,” she says. “I can’t imagine the show existing without those two specific performances.”

“The Madison” Season 1 is now streaming on Paramount+.