Madsen goes to where action is

What do you do when your whole life suddenly changes?

Virginia Madsen is one of the lucky few who has discovered the answer.

“Sideways,” the 2004 California wine country romance that earned her a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nomination, changed her life.

“After ‘Sideways,’ I wanted everything,” Madsen, 42, said.

As the offers followed the Oscar noise, Madsen decided to “put myself in a different position in Hollywood and take a step up. I wanted, of course, to be in a studio film - because I hadn’t been in a studio film since ’84 or ’85 with Universal’s ‘Fighting Fire With Fire.’ ”

She wouldn’t be mere arm candy in a big-budget action film.

“If I was going to be the wife, I wanted her to be the partner, an integral part of the story. I didn’t want to just be, like, the chick.”

“Firewall” came with A-list leading man Harrison Ford and a role as an architect and mother of two who was integral to the thriller. When the phone rang, it was Ford personally calling to make sure she’d say yes.

There was only one problem: Madsen couldn’t believe it was really Ford on the phone.

“I thought that it was a joke, that someone was pulling my leg because I got the nomination,” she said. “I had wanted to do the Harrison Ford movie, but I thought it was going to another actress, so I was like, ‘That’s not funny.’ Then it began to dawn on me that it’s him. You can’t imitate him, and as soon as he was like, ‘Well, I think that you would make a very good wife for me.’ I was, ‘So do I!’ It was good. He’s very professional and very focused and was really, really fun with the kids.”

A single mother from her relationship with Antonio Sabato Jr., Madsen can look back on her years of struggle without regret.

“My private life has sort of always come first, and I think that’s why I wasn’t more ambitious in the beginning. I just felt like you have to be happy first. And I had my son to raise. I was kind of keenly aware of the fact that for him, this is really as it should be, because if I was on a series or if I was away all the time, I wouldn’t be with my son. I was the art teacher at his school for a couple of years, and that was one of the most fulfilling things that I’ve ever done, to be there every day. His dad was working and off making movies. So I got to be there.”

Madsen learned that while Oscar may be a golden opportunity, “It won’t improve your love life,” she said. “I kind of thought that when I went into the whole award season that I was so surrounded by all these interesting men, some spark would have been lit. It’s kind of a good thing that it didn’t happen, because now I would just be gone. I’d be one of those actresses that is like, ‘OK, bye-bye honey.’ When I have free time, now I have to spend it with (son) Jack.”

- By Stephen Schaefer