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Virginia Madsen stars in Sheepdog, the story of a U.S. Army combat veteran (Steven Grayhm) who is court ordered to attend sessions with a VA trauma therapist-in-training (Madsen). Madsen credited the “beautiful writing” and extensive research done by filmmaker/actor Grayhm as a few reasons why Sheepdog was a gratifying experience. The feature hits theaters January 16. Check out our full interview with Madsen below.
Virginia Madsen has carved out an illustrious acting career, and in this interview a few of her past films are mentioned (Fire With Fire, Walter, The Magic of Belle Isle). That said, we are here for Sheepdog, a first rate and resonant drama I highly recommend.
DEEPEST DREAM: Virginia, pleasure to meet you again.
VIRGINIA MADSEN: When did we last talk?
DEEPEST DREAM: Sideways. Maybe the last time was 10 years ago for Walter. So it’s been a while
VIRGINIA MADSEN: Wow. Yes – great. I love that movie (Walter).
DEEPEST DREAM: Great. Underrated movie. I going to harken back to another movie to tie into Sheepdog. There is a line in The Magic of Belle Isle where Morgan Freeman says, “Never stop looking for what’s not there.” And I feel that you have, in your roles, an uncanny ability to look for what’s not there. Especially in movies like Sideways, The Magic of Belle Isle and this film.
These are not just lines on a page for you or a character you’re making up out of nowhere. Can you elaborate on that?
VIRGINIA MADSEN: That’s such a beautiful question (and) such a wonderful observation because that’s what I do. I’ve been doing it for such a long time, and part of my training on the job was sometimes with material that was not great. So I learned to sort of fill in the blanks.
That gave me a real attention to my inner monologue and my character within. The given circumstances of the story. And I just saw so much in (Sheepdog) because this writing was beautiful. I mean, we didn’t have yellow pages and pink pages and rewrites every day. It was just all there when I first read it.
My task was to really get to know Steven (Grayhm) and find out what he had been on for, you know, almost 10 years at that point. (It was to) find out why he knew these things and how true were these things, et cetera. His whole story is really remarkable and I found it to be really compelling so I didn’t have to fill in a lot of the blanks.
The story was there. And everything behind me was, you know, came with it. Everything I do, I try to make it personal in some way.
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DEEPEST DREAM: Well, you try to make it personal, thereby as a viewer we believe you. Is it just because of your years and your craft, where you can separate your own personal life from the acting job at hand?
VIRGINIA MADSEN: I’ve been doing it for quite some time. A lot of it is experience. Being able to call upon things that are really personal come into it. But of course you have to leave your work on the set. So that comes with experience. The ability to separate church from state.
It was just so important that we got this right when we’re talking about this subject matter and our veterans, our troops, their families, friends, and partners. If it wasn’t truthful, I couldn’t be a part of it. So that was gonna be like a lot of heavy lifting emotionally for me.
So the skill of it comes in when you have to take care of yourself and leave your work on the set. Not always easily done in my case.
DEEPEST DREAM: A work is not completed until it’s shared. I’m sure the accolades for Sheepdog are secondary to actually getting the reaction and having people share their own experiences after watching the film.
VIRGINIA MADSEN: That was very important to me. The experience of meeting the audiences at Film Festival was extraordinary because you just want it to be right. Overwhelmingly people would stay after the screening and a lot of people wanted to embrace me because I’m the helper.
I’m one of the sheep dogs in the movie. They wanted to tell me their stories and it allowed me to share mine. So I was really glad that we had this period of time to screen it this way with people who had these these kinds of experiences in their real life.
We had the guys who traveled with us who were all veterans and they were always there to be my rock. And, you know, hugs all around. It just made you feel like this movie wasn’t just a commercial endeavor. It was like having a mission. One of them said that to me after one of the previews.
It was really heavy. Yes. Rewarding. And it’s really wonderful to hear that my work was effective and touched people. But knowing that I got it right and that the movie as a whole got it right. That was. Certainly allowed me now to sort of let it go and let it go out there in, in the world.
And it’s not scary. I feel proud.
DEEPEST DREAM: Can you name a film from your body of work that you feel might be underrated, overlooked, and that you would like people to see?
VIRGINIA MADSEN: You know, there’s so many of those films that were not recognized. It would depend on how old I was at the time. In my younger days there was a movie that called Fire With Fire, which always comes up more than Sideways. And I think Walter is a good example of a movie that I thought was really a wonderful little indie.
Again, I go towards these (movies) because that’s the best writing. That would be a really good one to look up. I’m glad you brought up Walter.
DEEPEST DREAM: I love Walter so much. Virginia, great speaking with you again. I love Sheepdog and looking forward to our next conversation.
VIRGINIA MADSEN: Thank you, Greg.
DEEPEST DREAM: Thank you. Take care.
Sheepdog, co-starring Matt Dallas, Dominic Fumusa, and Vondie Curtis-Hall hits theaters January 16.
***Q&A has been edited for clarity. Video version of our Madsen interview:
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