Michelle Pfeiffer is revealing the reality behind the idyllic setting of her hit show The Madison.
The three-time Oscar nominee shot the Paramount+ drama, created by Yellowstone’s Taylor Sheridan, in rural Montana, which meant getting back to basics.
“There is no bathroom. Even the outhouse is not real. There’s no AC, there’s no plumbing, there isn’t anything,” Pfeiffer, 68, shared in an interview with the Los Angeles Times published on Monday, May 18. “But it is breathtakingly beautiful. It is glorious.”
“It took a while [to adjust],” she said. “It was all a little bit rushed for everyone. So there weren’t certain things, sort of accommodations, set up. We didn’t really have trailers there because they were shooting 360 [degrees], so they couldn’t have a bunch of trailers around. So there really was no place for us to sit.”
Pfeiffer added, “There was no bathroom nearby. There was no food. In the winter, it was cold [and] it was like, ‘Could we have a heater?’ And in the summer, it was like, ‘Could I get an umbrella because the sun’s really intense?’”
In The Madison, Pfeiffer plays Stacy Clyburn, the matriarch of the Clyburn family, who relocate from New York City to Montana in the wake of patriarch Preston Clyburn’s death. The cast includes Kurt Russell, Matthew Fox, Patrick J. Adams, Beau Garrett and more.
Pfeiffer previously revealed she signed on to star in the series before there was even a script.
“I committed to it without even having read anything. It was really just him explaining the scope of the character and kind of the outline of where it was going,” the actress told Entertainment Tonight in March.
Pfeiffer continued, “I said, ‘Well, I’d really love to read something.’ And he said, ‘No, I really like to cast it first and then I write.’ I said, ‘Well, I’d really like to read something and then I commit.’ We went back and forth over a couple of weeks like that, and then I realized I wasn’t going to win this argument and I was either going to have to commit or give it up.”
The Madison’s first season, consisting of six episodes, premiered in March. The show was quietly renewed for a second season, also consisting of six episodes, before it premiered. Season 2 has already filmed, but a premiere date has not yet been announced.
Following the success of season 1 on Paramount+, the network renewed The Madison for a third season in April.
