At Paramount+’s All Trails Lead Here event, Deadline chatted with the cast of two Emmy-contending Taylor Sheridan shows — Landman and The Madison.
The Madison holds the record for Sheridan’s biggest series debut ever. It follows the story of Stacy Clyburn (Michelle Pfeiffer), a New York matriarch, who, when faced by the sudden and shocking death of her husband Preston (Kurt Russell), finds herself considering a family move to the place he loved most: Montana.
Beau Garrett, who plays Stacy’s daughter Abby on the show, gathered at the All Trails Lead Here event with some of her on-screen family: Elle Chapman, who plays Abby’s sister Paige, and Amiah Miller, who plays Abby’s daughter Bridgette.
“The first season was a lot of grief and upheaval,” Garrett told Deadline. Of the upcoming next season she teased: “Now we’re settling into Montana in Season 2, and I think that there’s a lot that comes with that… There’s going to be stuff that comes up as time goes on.”
On the show, we’ve seen Miller’s teenage character of Bridgette leaning into Montana life — something that will continue next season. “She meets a lot of new people,” she said. “She finds her footing, and I think Montana really forces her to reconnect and rebuild and bond with her family, and also be open to new connections, so I’m excited for people to see it.”
In order to bond as an on-screen family in the beginning, Chapman said, “We did a lot of family dinners. Beau’s a great host, she’s good at organizing things. We went shopping. We did some damage!”
Kevin Zegers, who plays Montana ranchman Cade Harris, said of working with Sheridan on the show, “I just felt fortunate that Taylor was open to me doing it. His writing’s so descriptive that it was enough that I felt like I understood what was required to play him. It’s such a great role.”
Joining Zegers was Daniella Vasinova, who plays Cade’s wife Kestrel. She said of finding her character, “It’s really a story of when two worlds collide. Michelle is the matriarch of her family, a socialite family coming from New York City, and I’m the matriarch of my family, and I represent more of a natural way of of life and of doing things.”
For composer Breton Vivian, creating the score was about “trying to do justice to those gorgeous shots,” he said. “And having these textural moments with the music that reflect the beautiful landscape.”
Another key component of The Madison is of course its production design by Charisse Cardenas. “We very much stick with bringing Taylor’s vision to life,” Cardenas said. He’s very specific about where he wanted the barn and placement, so he went out there with us. I’m kind of intuitive, I just saw things that I liked and then brought together, like in the [New York] townhouse we did a lot of raw materials — real marble, real stones, to incorporate Montana.”
Both The Madison and Landman have been renewed for new seasons, with Landman heading into its third and The Madison getting a third season ahead of its Season 2 premiere.