‘The Madison’: Kurt Russell, Michelle Pfeiffer & Director Christina Alexandra Voros On Grief, Taylor Sheridan’s TV Universe, ‘Batman’ & More [Bingeworthy Podcast]

Grief rarely arrives quietly. In “The Madison,” it detonates and leaves a family trying to rebuild their lives in the emotional rubble. The sweeping Paramount+ drama from Taylor Sheridan follows the Clyburn family after a devastating loss sends them from New York City to Montana, where grief, reinvention, and culture shock collide. The series stars Michelle Pfeiffer as matriarch Stacy Clyburn alongside Kurt Russell, Patrick J. Adams, Elle Chapman, Beau Garrett, and more.

On the latest episode of The Playlist’s Bingeworthy podcast, host Mike DeAngelo spoke with Russell and Pfeiffer about the emotional core of the series and their long‑awaited on‑screen reunion, before sitting down with director Christina Alexandra Voros, who helmed all episodes of the show and has become one of Sheridan’s most trusted collaborators.

Pfeiffer’s entry into the series came in a very Taylor Sheridan fashion. The filmmaker pitched the idea to her informally over tequila before any scripts existed.

“Well, he got me drunk and then sort of in very broad strokes laid out what this story was and who this family was,” Pfeiffer recalled. “He says that I committed that night, but I did not.”

Still, the pitch lingered. After speaking with Helen Mirren, who had worked with Sheridan before, Pfeiffer decided to take the leap.

“I’d never ever committed to anything that I hadn’t read,” she explained. “But [Helen Mirren] spoke so highly of him and said the scripts were perfect and the productions were perfect. So I just, sight unseen, threw caution to the wind and committed.”

Russell came aboard quite late into production, once scripts were in circulation, and knowing Pfeiffer was already attached made the character instantly vivid for him.

“I had four scripts to read, and I was just knocked out,” Russell said. “It was easy to read because I could see Michelle. I mean, it was, I was watching Michelle in this.”

The role also struck a surprisingly personal chord.

“I’ve never played anybody this close to me personally at all,” he added. “So this was, for me, just a total dream.”

The pair hadn’t shared the screen since the 1988 crime drama “Tequila Sunrise”, and Pfeiffer said that shared history became an unexpected advantage when building the emotional weight of their marriage in the show.

“It helped me a lot because first of all, because I adore him,” Pfeiffer said. “I have such fond memories of working on ‘Tequila Sunrise.’”

At one point, Pfeiffer was even filming her side of certain scenes before Russell’s casting was finalized, but she committed to imagining him in the role.

“I decided it was Kurt,” she said with a laugh. “Because it’s going to be more fun acting with this guy than anyone else.”

Russell returned the compliment, telling Pfeiffer directly that she was “perfect” in the role and explaining that reading the scripts while picturing her performance elevated the entire experience.

Even with the pair mostly filming separately, Russell said the emotional chemistry was already baked into the material.

“You were so perfect in this,” he told her. “Even though we were apart doing certain aspects of the first season, I don’t think it would have made a whole lot of difference.”

Naturally, the conversation also drifted into some career‑spanning reflections. Russell spoke about the enduring cultural life of “The Thing,” which has continued to gain appreciation decades after its release.

“That movie has its own life,” Russell said. “The last line in that movie has given it that life.”

He noted that revisiting the film for a recent documentary didn’t reveal anything new to him personally, but the continued fascination with it is unmistakable.

“People who find that one compelling… it kind of continues to grow,” he said.

Pfeiffer also reflected on her legendary turn as Catwoman in “Batman Returns,” a performance that has only become more iconic with time.

“Catwoman already had such a place in the lexicon of comic books, which is why I was obsessed with playing her,” Pfeiffer said. “And I mean, it’s well known that Annette Bening was originally cast as Catwoman, and then, lucky for me, she got pregnant. And because I remember when she was cast, I was really mad…It was just a dream come true to play that part.”

Russell quickly added his own enthusiastic endorsement.

“Catwoman was in the lexicon of comic books, but not like that,” he said. “Michelle’s Catwoman is like, ‘Good luck guys, you’re not going to top that.’ It was perfect.”

Russell also revealed he had once been loosely discussed as a potential Batman himself around the 1989 Tim Burton film, even noting that it’s “one of the few things he didn’t get” that he regrets. At the time, he had reservations about how the character had been portrayed in the versions leading up to it.

“There was a lot of talk about [playing the part], and I never heard anything real, but I was hoping because I couldn’t stand what they were doing with ‘Batman,’” he said. “Like the comedy stuff. I couldn’t. Jack Nicholson had the great line, which is something like, ‘I’m crazy, but this guy who was dressed like a bat is fine?!’ And it was like, ‘no, there’s a real story there, but it’s dark.”

For Russell, Christopher Nolan ultimately delivered the darker interpretation he felt the character needed.

“When Gordon says, ‘I never said thank you,’ and he turns around and says, ‘And you’ll never have to,’” Russell said, recalling a moment from Nolan’s trilogy. “That’s Batman. I don’t do it for you because you need me to do it. I do it for me. That’s a different guy. I thought that was great, I loved seeing what took place after that.”

The episode’s second half shifts to director Christina Alexandra Voros, whose path through Sheridan’s growing TV empire has been anything but conventional. Voros first joined “Yellowstone” as a B‑camera operator, then worked her way up to cinematographer and eventually director.

“On B‑camera, you’re sort of the sweet spot as an operator because you are kind of the camera that’s allowed to go searching to find poetry,” Voros explained.

Sheridan noticed that instinct early.

“He likes throwing people into the deep end to see if they can swim,” she said. “And he won’t push you in there unless he has a pretty good feeling that you can.”

Voros also offered one of the more vivid descriptions of Sheridan’s prolific writing process.

“When he writes, it seems to come out like a wildfire moving through him,” she said. “The story moves through him like a storm front and comes out fully realized.”

She described Sheridan’s scripts as unusually vivid documents that contain nearly everything a director needs.

“I wish people had a chance to read his scripts,” Voros said. “They’re as much fun to read as they are to watch.”

Beyond the craft, Voros also connected to the show’s deeper themes, particularly the cultural tension between urban and rural America that the Clyburn family experiences.

“I see empathy and humor,” she said. “Both things are true.”

The director also praised Pfeiffer’s presence on set, saying she embodied the matriarchal leadership of her character both on and off camera.

“Michelle is a matriarch as Stacey Clyburn, and she was a matriarch to all of us on the show,” Voros said. “She was the gold standard.”

Listen to the full conversation with Kurt Russell, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Christina Alexandra Voros below, or check out the video interview via the YouTube embed below.

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Bingeworthy is part of The Playlist Podcast Network, which includes Deep Focus, The Discourse, and more. We can be heard on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Soundcloud, and most places where podcasts are found. You can stream the podcast via the embed within the article. Be sure to subscribe and drop us a comment or a rating, as we greatly appreciate it. Thank you for listening.