We first met him in Party of Five. He captivated audiences in Lost, then moved into film, taking on villains, adventurers, and everything in between. Now, after a self-imposed hiatus, Matthew Fox is returning to television with 'The Madison,' the Michelle Pfeiffer-led series set in Taylor Sheridan's Montana universe.
Visibly lean and at times uneasy with the interview circuit surrounding the Paramount+ premiere this weekend, Fox grew emotional during our conversation about what drew him back to television. He also opened up about Paul Clyburn, his character in The Madison, a solitary man who feels most at home outdoors and who is also the brother of Kurt Russell's character.
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"I read the scripts and immediately felt the urge to be a part of it," Fox explained regarding his involvement in The Madison. "Obviously I'm a huge fan of Taylor Sheridan, and I think he's an amazing writer."
The series, which premieres this March 14 on Paramount+, has been presented as the female version of Yellowstone, the Sheridan production starring Kevin Costner, which launched the entire Montana universe. However, it's something else entirely. It's not just the perspective of Pffifer, who plays Stacy Clyburn, the matriarch of a wealthy New York City family. It's the experience of those who come from outside: the children, the teenagers, and even a broken marriage. All under the shadow of tragedy.
If a comparison to Yellowstone is necessary, perhaps it could be said that it is from the point of view of someone who arrives seeking to heal their soul, to give meaning to one of the most profound duels ever seen on television.
In that context, Fox's character is the brother-in-law, the one who lives there, the one who is also a protagonist in the great tragedy that strikes the family. The character is the perfect representation of Montana, a role he couldn't refuse, even though he had decided to step away from the cameras in 2023. "It just grabbed me," he confessed. "I read the scripts and immediately felt the urge to be a part of it."
Although Paul joins the list of his iconic characters, like Jack Shephard in Lost, Whether it's Charlie Salinger in Party of Five, the killer Picasso in the film Cross, or even Rex Racer, Speed Racer's brother in the film and video game Speed Race, Fox asserted that the decision had nothing to do with cultivating or preserving his legacy as an actor who has left his mark on pop culture. When he accepts a role, he focuses solely on the part. "I don't think about any kind of bigger picture. Honestly, I just go with the flow of what I read and how I react to it," he stated.
In fact, "until I read a script, I can't really understand if it's going to have the effect on me that I feel I need to commit to dedicating a lot of time and energy to being part of something," she explained. In the case of The Madison, it wasn't even a conscious decision. "I felt like the script was pulling me along, and I love that, that it feels inevitable, like it's just going to happen," she added.
The image of being dragged along makes it impossible not to recall some of the early scenes of the Clayburn brothers fly-fishing. It's an homage to the slow life, to simple pleasures, to the playful tension between two brothers who love each other. In The Madison, Fox relives those moments with Russell, but he also couldn't help but remember his own childhood.
"I grew up in that part of the world, in northwest Wyoming. My father is passionate about fly fishing. Nowadays he doesn't go to the river as much because he's a bit older, but I've had fly fishing rods in my hands since I was a child," he said.
"I have two brothers, and he gave us fly rods when we were very young. And I remember him making us practice casting on the farm where I grew up. He'd make us cast there until he approved our technique. It was like, 'Okay, are you ready to go to the river now?' And, well, that's all we wanted to do as kids, we just wanted to go to the river and fish with our dad," he said. "So that whole part of the story was very familiar to me."
Furthermore, as part of that important brotherly relationship that drives the entire storyline in the series, Fox felt his character should be very good with the fly rod. "So that was easy, because I'm really, really good with a fly rod," he said with a laugh. "Speaker 3: I'm bragging on myself now. I'm really good with the fly rod."
The flowers are more than deserved, but not for her technique—or perhaps they are, but I don't have the necessary expertise to judge. She deserves a whole garden of flowers for her work at The Madison and throughout her entire career.
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