Spoilers below.<\/em><\/p>\n By the time The Madison<\/em><\/a> came into her life, Beau Garrett had thought it might be time to \u201cexit\u201d the acting business. The Girlfriends\u2019 Guide to Divorce <\/em>and Firefly Lane <\/em>actress had moved to Vancouver Island, had a baby, and watched the fallout of the pandemic and 2023\u2019s SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes rock her hometown of Los Angeles from afar. \u201cLiving up here,\u201d she says, turning her Zoom web camera around to show me the ocean outside her window, \u201cI was like, \u2018Maybe this is not the world for me anymore.\u2019 I love acting. I\u2019ve been doing it for as long as I can remember, but it felt very far.\u201d<\/p>\n She continues, \u201cI hadn\u2019t really given up, but I had really kind of lost faith in it and felt very disconnected by way of having a kid, being here, and the business being so different.\u201d<\/p>\n Then a request for a self-tape audition came in. At the time, Garrett\u2019s daughter was eight months old, and in the midst of navigating nap times and scrambling to find someone who could read lines with her in such a remote location, she figured her tape would be \u201ca mess.\u201d But she also had known the casting director for the Paramount+ project, John Papsidera, for \u201cmany years.\u201d She wrote him a message, asking, \u201cIf you see [the tape] and like it and there\u2019s anything I can do differently, let me know.\u201d Sure enough, he wrote her back with some suggestions.<\/p>\n \u201cWe [filmed] it again, this time with one of his readers online,\u201d Garrett says. \u201cAnd, of course, my power went out, which happens here all the time.\u201d It didn\u2019t make a difference. Garrett\u2019s performance was strong enough to secure her a flight to Wyoming, where she tested for a lead role in Taylor Sheridan\u2019s highly anticipated post-Yellowstone<\/em> drama The Madison, alongside four other girls. Five days later, she was in the car with her mother-in-law when a call from a number she didn\u2019t recognize came in.<\/p>\n It was Sheridan. \u201cHe shot the shit for a little while about weather,\u201d Garrett recalls, laughing. \u201cAnd my mother-in-law, who\u2019s never been familiar with this world, was just sitting there, eyes wide. And he told me I got it, and I think I\u2019d blacked out at that point. I hung up the phone, and my mother-in-law was like, \u2018Kurt Russell\u2019s going to be your dad!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n In Sheridan\u2019s The Madison<\/em>, Garrett plays Abigail Reese, eldest daughter of Michelle Pfeiffer\u2019s Stacy Clyburn and Russell\u2019s Preston Clyburn<\/a>. When, in the pilot episode<\/a>, Preston and his brother, Paul, die in a tragic plane crash in Montana, the rest of the Clyburn family flies out to identify his remains. But the wealthy Manhattanites end up becoming more attached\u2014and embedded\u2014in the Madison River valley than they first anticipated. Back in New York, Abigail\u2019s life has reached a breaking point: She\u2019s divorced from her ex-husband, Dallas, and struggling to raise her two daughters, Bridget and Macy, on her own. Preston\u2019s death shatters any illusions she might have had about her own independence, and she finds herself attempting to shoulder her mother\u2019s grief as well as her own.<\/p>\n \u201cTaylor [Sheridan] and I met 20 years ago, and he coached me for an audition moons ago, and I hadn\u2019t seen him since,\u201d Garrett says. \u201cSo to come full circle, to this point where I felt like he was really taking a risk on me, on this character, it was a real highlight.\u201d<\/p>\n In the final three episodes of The Madison<\/em> season 1, which dropped today, Abigail and the rest of the Clyburns return to New York after several days in Montana, where Abigail had met local sheriff Van Davis (Ben Schnetzer) and struck up a romance. But New York doesn\u2019t feel the same to her anymore, and she misses Van more than she might have realized. (She ends up calling him when her sister, Paige (Elle Chapman), gets into some unexpected trouble with the police.) When the grieving Stacy goes missing in the finale, Abigail files a missing person\u2019s report, but Stacy has fled back to Montana. With season 2 already filmed, it seems only a matter of time before Abigail (and Garrett by extension) is back in the valley as well.<\/p>\n Below, Garrett discusses the relationship dynamics that made season 1 of The Madison<\/em> well worth staying in Hollywood\u2014and teases what\u2019s to come in the next chapter of Sheridan\u2019s intimate family drama.<\/p>\n I think that Abigail\u2019s always been daddy\u2019s girl. He\u2019s also been her biggest fan\u2026and probably the person that\u2019s never really told her the truth. I think she knows<\/em> that, deep down: that her dad never really was honest with her about her shortcomings or her failures. He never challenged her, because maybe he didn\u2019t have faith in her, which she also<\/em> didn\u2019t have.<\/p>\n I think Abigail always was seeking her mother\u2019s approval because her mother was going to tell her how she [really] felt, but her dad was the safe place to go to. I think that they had a lot of fun. They were like adventure buddies. I think that there\u2019s a part of Abigail that, when she finally comes to Montana and she sees this place, she\u2019s actually quite surprised with how comfortable she is.<\/p>\n I think that is when she realizes [their family] did lose a lot. She could have had this life that she\u2019s weirdly attracted [to]\u2026she could have known it 20 years ago, and how sad that is! There\u2019s so much about her father that she never asked about. That is so much of Abigail\u2019s grief and hurt and shame is that she never really had an honest conversation with her dad because he was afraid to hurt her feelings, and she knew that.<\/p>\n I was so nervous to meet her and to work with her. One of our first scenes out of the gate was us fully going at it in that scene where she calls [Abigail\u2019s daughters] \u201cbitches,\u201d and I was like, \u201cOkay! I got to just step it up.\u201d But we just had a really immediate connection.<\/p>\n This is all my own backstory that\u2019s separate of anything Taylor\u2019s ever written; it\u2019s just how I created Abby to make sense for our relationship: I think that Preston and Stacy didn\u2019t have money when they had Abigail. They hadn\u2019t come into all this fortune until, maybe, midway through her early years. When Stacy talks about, like, \u201cI remember the good old days, when we ate ramen and the power went out,\u201d I think Abigail was part of that life. There\u2019s a real intimacy when a family has come from nothing and then there\u2019s expansion where now they have everything.<\/p>\n I think Abigail and Stacy had this bond from early on that was very different than Paige and Stacy. Because when Paige came, they had money. They had nannies. Maybe as Abigail got older and there were nannies around, other people to take care of her children, there was a disconnect. Abigail never really connects with her mom as much anymore. And she kind of always disappointed her.<\/p>\n Also, Abigail had a baby at 20. She had a different trajectory; life stopped for her. Then she had another child, and she stayed in a relationship for a long time that wasn\u2019t probably healthy because she just didn\u2019t have the balls to get out.<\/p>\n Now she\u2019s realizing that she\u2019s always\u2014maybe underneath\u2014had the confidence and strength, but finally losing her father is making her step up in a way that I don\u2019t think she ever anticipated.<\/p>\n Beau Garrett as Abigail Reese in The Madison<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n I think she does have a hard time. But I also do think she recognizes it occasionally. They\u2019re all so in their own worlds, and then they have these moments of intimacy because of their surroundings\u2014they have to connect. But I think she\u2019s disappointed in how<\/em> they\u2019re grieving. If you know somebody who\u2019s lost somebody and you see them and they\u2019re having a coffee and they\u2019re smiling, you might be like, \u201cWell, they\u2019re clearly not grieving.\u201d But they are. They just do it their own way.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t know what Stacy expects, but it\u2019s clearly taking Abigail and Paige a little bit longer to make sense of it all. I think Abigail\u2019s tried. She looked at [her father\u2019s] body; she said, \u201cI want to see it.\u201d She wants to feel it, to touch the fire, but that didn\u2019t work. I think Van is the only person in her life right now that has softened her and maybe allowed her to experience loss because she can\u2019t experience it in front of her mom. She doesn\u2019t feel like she\u2019s capable. And she can\u2019t with her sister because they\u2019re on two different planets. And she can\u2019t with her kids\u2014she has to be there for them. So she doesn\u2019t really have anyone, right?<\/p>\n I think that meeting Van has really surprised her and softened her in a way that she didn\u2019t anticipate.<\/p>\n She met him, and he was so different than anything she\u2019d ever experienced. She\u2019s so used to this dating cycle in New York where she has dinner with these guys and thinks they have this amazing conversation, and then she never hears from them again. I mean, I was single for a long time. I remember the experience of going on dates with people and being like, \u201cOomph. I feel like a horrible human now. That person made me feel really bad.\u201d<\/p>\n And when you meet someone who really gets<\/em> you, who isn\u2019t expecting anything, who doesn\u2019t have any judgment and is asking questions, is curious, is soft about how they navigate your feelings\u2026It throws you. I don\u2019t think she believes [the relationship with Van] is going to go anywhere. So why not throw it all out there? Like, This is going to fail. So who cares? I\u2019m just going to say all the things I want to say. We\u2019re in the middle of nowhere in a place that is so strange to us and no one\u2019s going to judge me for it, so I\u2019m just going to do it.<\/em><\/p>\n I think every time she does that, he reacts in a way that surprises her, and she feels safe. She\u2019s never really felt safe with anyone.<\/p>\n I think everything\u2019s a bit louder than she remembered and a bit more aggressive than she remembered. I remember when I used to travel all the time, I would go to places that would just break me open and stick with me. I still think about them. And I think that\u2019s Montana for Abigail. It\u2019s, like, hovering over her. Is it her father? Is it hope? Is it Van? Is it the quiet? I don\u2019t think she knows yet, but it\u2019s something big enough that it\u2019s, like, on top of her. And so there\u2019s a real disconnect with the reality in New York.<\/p>\n She doesn\u2019t know if she\u2019s going back. As far as she knows, she\u2019s in New York to stay. So that\u2019s also very sad. The way Van and her left it off was not great. She doesn\u2019t think she\u2019s going to talk to him again.<\/p>\n And then what happens with Paige makes an easy excuse. She doesn\u2019t have<\/em> to call him.<\/p>\n Yeah. I don\u2019t even think she thought about it. That\u2019s just the person she called. Her emergency contact.<\/p>\n Ben Schnetzer as Van Davis and Beau Garrett as Abigail Reese in The Madison<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n We\u2019re a bit different as mothers. I\u2019m a little more hands-on. I think Abigail was<\/em> for a long time, and I think this divorce has really broken her. She\u2019s a tough-love mom. She also allows these girls to kind of get away with murder because she\u2019s exhausted.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t know that she really knows what kind of mother she wants to be to them because she doesn\u2019t really know who she is right now. I have hopes of who she will be as a mother, but I would say that right now, she is just trying to find herself. Those girls take care of each other.<\/p>\n No. I think she thinks Stacy might not want to be on this planet anymore. I think it\u2019s as dark as that. I don\u2019t think her first thought is Montana. The first thought is, Is she okay? Where is she?<\/em> Abigail knows Stacy\u2019s not with Liliana because Liliana would have called her. There\u2019s really no other place in New York that they would have gone. She thinks that something is seriously wrong, and that\u2019s why it\u2019s important to file a missing person\u2019s report so they can look immediately and make sure she\u2019s okay.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t know that Abigail saw the gun [in Preston\u2019s car] in episode 3, but she knows that her mom is on the brink of a meltdown. You can see it in their conversations; even in doing those scenes with Michelle, there was a very fragile and chaotic feeling that came from her that was alarming to work with because it was unnerving. I didn\u2019t know where she was going to go with things. And Abigail has the instinct to stay quiet in those moments and see where it goes before she jumps in.<\/p>\n It\u2019s really funny; we would get the scripts and be like, okay<\/em>. And sometimes it would be like, fever-dream scripts. They\u2019d come to us last-minute; things were misspelled. I was like, \u201cClearly he wrote this in the middle of the night.\u201d But it was so alive and it [showed the] urgency to tell the story.<\/p>\n So we got this beautiful opportunity to take these words and filter them through the lens of Michelle and our incredible director, Christina[Alexandra Voros], and this amazing crew that gave us so much space. There\u2019s such a well-oiled machine. And in the second season, there\u2019s a very specific scene that we shot that was so intimate and so high-stakes. We were in a tiny room and it was me and Michelle. I swear I walked into that room and it was, like, you could hear a pin drop.<\/p>\n You would have five camera operators in this tiny room, and it would be total silence. There was so much respect for everyone\u2019s jobs. You didn\u2019t have people like, \u201cHey! Let\u2019s keep it moving because people don\u2019t pay attention!\u201d<\/p>\n Clearly they do. I think this is a really slow-moving show, and people are paying attention. I think we can<\/em> pay attention. I don\u2019t think we have to have action and movement all the time to keep us entertained or engaged. People grieve and lose and suffer and have family situations that are incredibly uncomfortable and hard to navigate and fail. This show is all those things. I\u2019m really grateful that people are really responding and relating to it.<\/p>\n When I was reading the scripts, they were all a bit different than I had anticipated\u2014in a good way. There is a lightness to season 2 that I think is going to be really engaging, especially after the end of season 1. There are moments of real levity. That would be all I could say.<\/p>\n This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nI\u2019m so fascinated by Abigail\u2019s relationship with Preston, in large part because we don\u2019t really get to see it. We learn about it secondhand, after his death. How do you think Abigail really felt about him?<\/h2>\n
What about Abigail\u2019s relationship with Stacy? There\u2019s a real tension there despite their intimacy. What was it like working with Michelle to make those relationship dynamics work?<\/h2>\n
![\"beau](\"https:\/\/hips.hearstapps.com\/hmg-prod\/images\/62ad533f-9f85-4ba6-bf20-273ea9768c22.png?crop=1xw:1xh;center,top&resize=980:*\" "\\"beau")
<\/p>\nDo you think that Stacy really recognizes that her daughters are grieving as much as she is? Just in a very different way?<\/h2>\n
What do you think Abigail sees in Van and in this relationship? Speaking of unorthodox ways of grieving, it\u2019s interesting for her to strike up a new romance right in the wake of this loss. Walk me through what she\u2019s thinking.<\/h2>\n
In these final episodes of the season when she\u2019s back in New York, what do you think she is feeling?<\/h2>\n
But she wants to.<\/h2>\n
![\"ben](\"https:\/\/hips.hearstapps.com\/hmg-prod\/images\/930e4b56-8d53-4004-8dd3-f2410671abdb.png?crop=1xw:1xh;center,top&resize=980:*\" "\\"ben")
<\/p>\nI also found Abby\u2019s relationship with her daughters so interesting. What kind of role model do you think Abby, ideally, wants to be for them?<\/h2>\n
In the finale, Abigail realizes that Stacy\u2019s gone. She files a missing person\u2019s report when she can\u2019t find her. Why do you think that\u2019s her immediate instinct? Do you think that she has any inkling that Stacy might be in Montana?<\/h2>\n
It\u2019s heavy, isn\u2019t it?<\/h2>\n
You\u2019ve completed filming on season 2 already. What excites you about what audiences will see of Abby\u2019s story arc moving forward?<\/h2>\n