Michele Pfeiffer’s matriarch Stacy Clyburn was never going to die. ‘Everybody else was on the table,’ says Kurt Russell of the tragedy-hinting ‘Madison’ trailer.
Michelle Pfeiffer and Kurt Russell reveal spoiler death in new series
Kurt Russell and Michelle Pfeiffer reveal huge spoiler about character who dies in “The Madison” Episode 1
Warning: Spoilers ahead for “The Madison.”
Ever since the trailer for “The Madison” dropped last month, it’s been clear that tragedy strikes someone in the Taylor Sheridan-created modern-day series. But who?
Michelle Pfeiffer and Kurt Russell − who play parents and grandparents Stacy and Preston Clyburn − watched their words carefully ahead of the Paramount+ premiere of the first three episodes March 14. But during a joint USA TODAY interview, Pfeiffer, 67, and Russell, 74, have license to spill.
“I already gave away a big spoiler accidentally and will probably get fired,” Pfeiffer says, before turning to Russell. “I’m actually surprised people are surprised … that you … go …”
Pfeiffer doesn’t actually say the word “die,” but a hand drawn across her neck — punctuated by a dry-throat “khkk” sound — elicits a knowing laugh from Russell. His Preston dies right off the bat in “Madison” Episode 1.
Pfeiffer’s surprise stems from the fact that it’s pretty obvious Preston is tragically deceased from the trailer, which has Stacy weeping, talking about “tragedy,” and wearing her husband’s weathered Simm’s fishing gear hat.
Russell says matriarch Stacy was the only character off the table of possible “Madison” deaths in the strikingly emotional project from “Yellowstone” creator Sheridan.
Other possible tragic victims included Preston’s Montana-loving brother, Paul (“Lost” alum Matthew Fox); the couple’s divorced daughters, Abigail (Beau Garrett) and Paige (Elle Chapman), and Paige’s husband, Russell (“Suits” star Patrick J. Adams).
“Everybody else was on the table,” says Russell, who agrees it’s clear by trailer’s end that it’s Preston who is RIP. “It smelled a lot like Kurt (Russell) is going to go in five minutes.”
Actually, it’s 25 minutes into the opening episode that Preston and brother Paul die when their single-engine plane crashes into a mountainside during a freak storm while returning to the glorious Montana retreat that transplanted New Yorker Preston has built along the Madison River.
It’s an outdoorsman’s death for the self-made business titan, coming after a delirious fly-fishing trip in a remote locale. And darkly romantic: Preston’s last word when bracing for impact is “Stacy!” Russell asked director Christina Alexandra Voros to make that final word crystal clear after watching an early episode cut with his real-life partner, Goldie Hawn, and his oldest son, Boston (with his ex-wife Season Hubley).
“They had one comment: They asked, ‘What does he say?'” Russell says of the family reaction to Preston’s last word. “I thought, ‘Oops, that’s not good.’ So I called Christina. I don’t know what they did, but they fixed it.”
Russell was struck by the emotion in the Sheridan scripts − and startled by how quickly Preston’s death comes in Episode 1.
“I didn’t expect it to happen so soon,” Russell says. “I thought, ‘How is this love story going to work between two people when you killed (Preston) off in Episode 1?'”
What happens in ‘The Madison’?
The spousal death brings Madison Avenue queen Stacy out of New York City with her urban-spoiled daughters and granddaughters. Stacy, in her grief, starts to follow her husband’s life through his journals, adapting to Montana life and the rustic outdoor outhouse she had avoided for years.
“It’s got a drop of ‘Green Acres,’ but it’s a drama and a tragedy,” Pfeiffer says.
Despite Preston being quite dead, Russell thrives in the memory-filled “Madison” through dreamy flashbacks, most of them in Montana splendor.
These calls, often shot with Stacy soaking in a luxurious concrete bathtub in the couple’s to-die-for Upper East Side penthouse, were predominantly filmed before Russell was officially cast while trying to juggle his schedule with the Apple TV+ series “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters.”
Pfeiffer pictured Russell, her co-star in 1988’s “Tequila Sunrise,” on the other end.
“I just imagined it was Kurt; he hasn’t changed a bit since ‘Tequila Sunrise,'” she says.
“Just don’t look at any photographs,” Russell says.
The bubble-filled bathtub scenes, one of which includes Preston while home, were actually not as glorious as they appear on TV.
“You want that bathroom, you can have it,” Russell says. “That bathtub is so high. You can’t get the back of your head comfortable.”
“That bathtub is a little too long, and so you just slide,” Pfeiffer says. “There’s no way of holding yourself up. You need a block of wood. It’s actually a horrible bathtub.”
The TV drama is delicious for three-time Oscar-nominated actress Pfeiffer, who hears the devastating news at a swanky New York City restaurant in front of well-heeled diners.
“There’s one of two scenes that you dread on any project,” says Pfeiffer, who says she tried to persuade Sheridan to have Stacy take the call outdoors. “I said, ‘What if I just run out of the restaurant?’ And he said, ‘No, you stay there.'”
Pfeiffer, who lives just outside LA in Pacific Palisades with her husband of more than three decades, producer David E. Kelley, says she came to understand the obvious appeal of Montana while shooting the six episodes of Season 1 and the upcoming Season 2 of “The Madison.” But she wouldn’t necessarily move permanently.
“If you had to, you could,” Russell says.
“If I had to … yeah,” Pfeiffer says. “It’s just the most beautiful landscape that I’ve ever seen. And they call it ‘Big Sky’ for a reason. But I don’t think I could live there full-time. Maybe small bits of time … here and there.”
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