Louder, less dorky

Her hair in curlers for an impending talk show appearance, actress Virginia Madsen exudes not a hint of Hollywood vanity. In fact, it is easy to imagine her as never having left her native Chicago as she talks openly about her age (42) and the struggles of being a single mother. Only when she mentions in passing the number of times she had previously been turned down by a certain late-night chat show is one reminded that she is definitely not an average Midwestern mom.

Perhaps it’s that she has experienced the view from so many rungs on that vaunted ladder of success -- rising ingenue, money-making starlet, workaday B-movie mainstay -- that she wears her current position as the critically lauded, awards-garnering comeback queen of “Sideways” with such humble, graceful ease. Currently making her way through the stack of post-”Sideways” scripts she has been sent, she is taking her time picking her next role, saying simply, “I want to honor ‘Sideways’ with the next role I do.”

Even though there is a perception that “Sideways” is a comeback for you, looking at your credits, you never really went away. You’ve worked pretty steadily throughout your career.

After my son was born, I slowed down a lot. I was able to make a living by doing maybe one TV movie a year, and some guest-starring things would bring in a little money along the way. I was able to keep myself afloat, although my house went into foreclosure twice. That was really hard, a couple of bad, bad years. But the thing is, I felt all the time like I was being tested. There was one time I was in real financial hardship and I got offered this movie where I was meant to fall into a swimming pool full of rats. They offered me a really, really good paycheck for this movie, shockingly good money because they really wanted me, my name still had enough value, and I remember this enormous argument with my accountant. He was like “Sometimes you’ve gotta do these things.” I was crying and I was saying, “You don’t understand, this is what happened to my career once before.” Until I could continue to say no, stop chasing the money, I wasn’t going to get anywhere. So I turned it down.

How did you react when you first read the “Sideways” script?

I just thought it was so much like me. I spent a lot of time in that area -- that’s where I go for weekends and stuff. So I knew how I felt when I was in that wine valley. I decided to just bring that side of myself to the audition and not do any work, any technical character work, at all. I just thought it would be this simple part, an opportunity to show people who I am. She’s different from me in that she’s quieter than me, she’s dorkier than me, she moves at a much slower pace than I do, we have a different inner speed. But other than those specific things, it’s that side of me.

One criticism people have been leveling at the film is that it is flattering to the type of people who give out movie awards -- grumpy middle-aged men. People keep saying, “Why would a woman like Maya go for a man like Miles?”

She’d be interested in him. She’s known him for a while. She’s watched his decline and knows he didn’t always drink like that. And think about what we learn about her ex-husband -- she doesn’t call him a bastard or a cheater, she calls him a fraud. That’s a really intense thing to call somebody. She was probably his student and looked up to him as this incredible, worldly man, and people like that can be mean and snobby. And coming from a man like that, and a marriage like that, to somebody who’s very poetic and very emotional, I think that’s incredibly appealing to her. What you see is what you get. I think the quiet poet is exactly what she’s looking for.

But he’s still something of a schlub.

Some of us like nice guys. I really don’t like bad boys in real life; I don’t like complicated, snobby men. The last boyfriend I had, and I rarely have a boyfriend, the last time I really fell in love, he was short and bald and not a particularly attractive man, but he was a poet and I just thought he hung the moon. And I became so attracted to him that my friends were deeply embarrassed for me in public. Seriously. The smart thing, the brainy thing, that’s what gets my clothes off.

I think you just brought a glimmer of hope to film critics all across the country.

Well, a lot of them are like Miles, aren’t they? And I mean that in the best way.