Last week, Madsen phoned Movieline to explain why actresses are fleeing to television, the time her brain literally exploded, and her secret to great onscreen (and offscreen) chemistry.
Congratulations on Scoundrels. I read that you haven't actually seen Outrageous Fortune, the New Zealand comedy from which your series is based.
No and I really, really wanted to. [The producers] didn't want any of us to watch it and I was trying to sneak around and watch it online. But I get it -- they wanted me to create my own Cheryl and from what I understand, Robyn Malcolm, who plays the original Cheryl, is really, really terrific. [The producers] just didn't want me to be intimidated or anything. I get it. But Robyn and I tweet each other. It's not going to be long until I get to see it.
Compared to other female characters on network television, especially moms in family-based series, Cheryl is really strong and not afraid to speak her mind. How much of a hand did you have in developing her that way?
Well, that was all written, but it was my idea to yell a lot. Every mother understands the use of volume -- you have to be tough in order to put your foot down. I think if we were to remake Leave it to Beaver, June Cleaver would be yelling a lot. [Laughs] Cheryl has four really extraordinary children and they are extraordinarily hard to control. I don't know if it's possible to control your children but she has the same dilemma I think all mothers have: they know what their children should do with their lives and their children disagree.
It's refreshing to see Cheryl front and center because in most family-oriented network series, the mothers stay in the background.
Right, what's up with that? The mothers in the background is just not a reality. I was happy to find that as well.
Were you actively looking for a television series when you found Scoundrels?
It wasn't something that I was looking for. They kind of found me and I just ended up really liking the project. But I do feel like there is just so much more opportunity for women on television now. We are understood here and we have a voice here and I think that's why a lot of us are flocking to television. Actresses have something to say and something to do and the bottom line is that we matter in television whereas in feature films we really don't. We have been so sidelined in feature films... I always go where the work is. I have always bounced back and forth between television and film because it's the work that attracts me and this just so happened to be the project that I liked the most.
What about the project spoke to you?
I was so surprised to find how real it was and how strong Cheryl is and also I loved the fact that Scoundrels is a dramedy. I loved that. That was a real draw for me, that I could bounce back and forth between what I do really well and what I don't know much about, meaning comedy. It's incredible to be at this point in my career and have a job where I am learning so much every day. That was also very attractive for me.
Well, it doesn't really feel any different for me because I spent most of my career doing small independent films where we had very little time and we had to shoot a lot of pages every day and you have to go for it and be extremely prepared. So I felt very much at home on this set. I haven't made very many films where we had three months and huge budget and big trailers. I haven't worked in that world very much so this seems very natural to me.
You have a pretty kick-ass voiceover resume. You've worked on Wonder Woman, Justice League, Spider-Man. How did those projects come about?
I started doing that about 15 years ago when I was enormously pregnant. I thought this would be a good way to continue working and to continue being creative but I was really, enormously pregnant and there wasn't any other way that I could work really. It was something that I trained for back in my acting school days and I have so much fun doing it, especially the cartoons -- I have only done a couple of the big animated features like Stuart Little, and I did Scooby-Doo. The cartoons are great because you just go in for an afternoon and you don't have to get dressed up, you don't have to wear make-up, and you can do things that you could never do normally. Like one time, I played a giant brain and I exploded. It was incredibly fun! I became overloaded with data and then I exploded. It's really fun -- it's just like being a little kid again.
Speaking of things you would never get to do in real life, you also went back in time during your arc on American Dreams. Was it surreal being in the sixties?
Honestly, I didn't feel like it was representative of the sixties. That job was a real disappointment for me because of my character, and it wasn't [the creators'] fault. I was there to be the feminist. My character was supposed to be a catalyst for change. I was going to take the show's mom [played by Gail O'Grady] out of the house to see Lenny Bruce and to teach her how to smoke pot. And that was something the network wasn't ready for, so they turned my character into a drunk. I couldn't believe it. I went from being a feminist to a drunk. I was thinking, "This is not right."
That isn't right.
The show's creators weren't happy with that either. Thankfully, they wrote me out of that story because I was more than disappointed in the direction that they decided to take my character. The network wanted a really straitlaced, quiet mom and that's the story that the creators had to tell. I don't know what I thought, but it was not the 1960s to me -- it was present day with a suburban quote-unquote mom and I know they had nice costumes and they had American Bandstand...I just don't think that the network was ready to tell that story truthfully because so much happened to women in that time. I watched the whole series because I liked the show a lot, too, and they tried to go to Vietnam and they did deal with issues of racism but they did not deal with the social upheaval that was going on in this country. I grew up around that.
For some reason when we look back at that period of time, more often than not, we make fun of hippies and flower children and they make it seem like teenagers were the only ones protesting but they don't show how many adults were protesting, how many people were deeply involved on a grassroots level and completely changing our country. It was monumental and historic and [laughs] I will get off the soap box now.
That was unsatisfying to me too because I thought Ray [Liotta] and I were going to be Bonnie and Clyde. We were so cool together! That was such a cool show but I ended up being relegated to the kitchen being the pancake-maker and I was like, "When do I get to get to hold a gun?!" And then they canceled it before I got my gun. I was very bummed out.
You guys had great chemistry.
I sure liked working with Ray. I can't believe they haven't put us in a movie together because we were so good together. He is great to work with.
I watched you on the Late Late Show the other night and couldn't help but notice the chemistry between you and Craig Ferguson. I think that was the first time that he has ever asked anyone to do a sexually charged awkward pause. How hard is it for you to "have chemistry" with a man onscreen?
[Laughs] <span
class="pullquote right">I have really good chemistry with men. It's probably because I'm single.
Is there a kind of actor that you have better chemistry with?
Well, I tend to really get along with very strong, masculine men. I do very well with them because I can stand next to them. I am not intimidated by them. I can do a movie with Harrison Ford and I can face him one-on-one.
Which real man would you like to star opposite in a film?
Russell Crowe. I would like to work him, he is an incredible actor. I'm fortunate because almost everybody on my list I have worked with. You know who I would like to work with again? Billy Bob Thornton. I loved working with him. I have an amazing connection with Billy Bob. We had so much fun, and we also had great chemistry. I like men like that because I grew up with men like that. That feels like home to me and boys... "whatever" with boys. They are entertaining and cute and fun, but I prefer real men.