Ben Schnetzer: On ‘The Madison,’ Being Part Of The Taylor Sheridan Universe [VIDEO]

Ben Schnetzer is a remarkable, immersive actor who has taken on very challenging roles in the last dozen years in all three mediums.

The actor was recently cast in The White Lotus Season Four, which has already commenced filming.

He can currently be seen in the smash Paramount+ series, The Madison, a surprisingly poignant departure from Taylor Sheridan, creator of Yellowstone. It’s been called a neo-western, but that doesn’t do it justice.

The Madison centers on Stacey Clyburn (an exceptional Michelle Pfeiffer) the matriarch of an NYC-based family. The clan must journey to Southeast Montana’s Madison River Valley to bury their much-beloved patriarch, Preston (Kurt Russell), who died in a plane crash, along with his brother Paul (Matthew Fox). Accompanying Stacy are her two daughters Abby (Beau Garrett) and Paige (Elle Chapman), Paige’s husband Russell (Patrick J. Adams) and Abby’s two girls.

The family must navigate their grief and guilt and deal with being out in the wilderness…together, hopefully without killing each other!

Abby ends up meeting sweet, sexy Deputy Sheriff Van Davis (Schnetzer), a widower with two boys, still mourning the loss of his wife. These two very different people from conflicting cultures, begin to fall for one another. But Abby can’t exist in the middle of nowhere and Van wouldn’t be caught dead in NYC. Can there be a future for them?

Season Two, already filmed, may answer that question. And, if not, it could be explored in the already greenlighted Season Three, which begins shooting in April 2027.

Schnetzer’s moving, nuanced work should be in Emmy consideration.

The thesp’s first major film was opposite Emily Watson and Geoffrey Rush in Brian Percival’s stirring The Book Thief in 2013. The very next year he was part of two terrific British ensemble films, Matthew Warchus’s rousing queer-themed, Pride, and Lone Scherfig’s superb, anxiety-inducing, The Riot Club. In 2016 he starred in Andrew Neel’s fascinating but controversial exploration of masculinity, Goat, which bowed at Sundance and he was featured in Oliver Stone’s highly underrated biopic Snowden. Other film credits include, José Padilha’s potent thriller 7 Days in Entebbe (2018),  Xavier Dolan’sThe Death & Life of John F. Donovan(2018) and Rachel Lee Goldenberg’s Swiped, opposite Lily James.

He recently shot Serge Ioan Celebidachi’s biopic, The Yellow Tie, about his celebrated, Romanian conductor father, Sergiu Celibidache. Schnetzer plays the titular character, delivering a fully-committed, bravura performance. The film is written by Celibidachi & James Olivier, and the terrific cast includes Sean Bean, Miranda Richardson and John Malkovich. The Yellow Tie recently screened at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival and is seeking U.S. distribution.

Besides The Madison, Schnetzer’s TV credits include Happy Town, The Truth about The Harry Quebert Affair, Y: The Last Man and 3 Body Problem.

On stage he co-starred in Holly Hunter and Bill Pullman in a revival of David Rabe’s Sticks and Bones, off Broadway, in 2014 and made his Broadway debut in Richard Bean’s play, The Nap in 2018. In 2022, he was part of the ensemble of Jonathan Spector’s Eureka Day at the Old Vic in London.

He’s one of those few rising stars who is more concerned with the craft than fame, much like his Pride ensemble member George MacKay.

Season One of The Madison is currently streaming on Paramount+.

The Contending had a blast VIDEO chatting with Schnetzer about The Madison and his career to date.