The term Gold Star Family refers to the immediate family of a U.S. service member who died in the line of duty. It’s a term Oscar-nominated actor Virginia Madsen was all too familiar with even before she signed on to the film “Sheepdog,” which hits theaters today.
Written, directed, produced and starring Steven Grayhm, “Sheepdog” tells the story of Calvin Cole, an Army veteran battling with PTSD. He is helped on the road to recovery by his unlikely friendship with a recent parolee and Vietnam veteran (Vondie Curtis-Hall) and Dr. Elecia Knox (Madsen), a VA trauma therapist-in-training.
Her nephew, Hudson, was a young serviceman who died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 2022. Hudson’s father was actor Michael Madsen, who passed away last year. Madsen recalls how she struggled to help her family upon Hudson’s passing. “You have this feeling of, ‘What can I do? How do we help each other?’”
Not long after, she received the script for “Sheepdog,” and the story resonated with her, particularly as Calvin is a young soldier. While she says she was “blown away by the beauty” of the script, she still wanted to clear it with her family. “I needed to go to them individually and ask for their blessing,” she reveals. “I told them, ‘I think this is right. I think this is a way that I can honor him. I think they’re talking about it in the right way.’” It helped knowing Grayhm had spent 10 years talking to veterans and their families to get the script right. There were also 17 military veterans and five Gold Star family members working on the set and in post-production of the film.
While shooting the film was a great experience, Madsen also knows that “once my job is done, you don’t know what they’re going to do with it.” So when she was finally able to see “Sheepdog,” she was overwhelmed. “It was so incredible,” she recalls. “They did it right, and it affected me on such a deep, personal level.” That feeling only increased when she began to travel with the film to festivals and attend screenings with Gold Star families.
Speaking with so many people — both in preparing for the film and after screening it — has been deeply moving. It’s also been rewarding to open conversations about PTSD, a term that might initially “make people squeamish to hear.” Says Madsen, “We all know the term Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, but I learned a new term, which is Post-Traumatic Growth. Recovery can lead to growth, and people need to know the helpers are out there. I wanted to see the good side of this story and show that it’s possible.”
Though the film deals with serious subject matter, it is ultimately hopeful. In addition, war is never shown on screen. And the audiences have been appreciative: “You meet so many people who say, ‘This is our voice. You heard us. Nobody is talking about these things.’”
Playing Dr. Knox has also helped Madsen in her own life as she learned more about how therapists help process grief with such methods as EMDR, a process depicted in the film. “This experience and being able to talk to other people has really helped ground me,” she says, adding that it was helpful when her brother passed away. “I’m not saying that I didn’t fall apart because I really did, but I had some tools, and I was able to speak to others about it and be supportive. It helped me feel I wasn’t alone in all of this.”
Several of the family members she sought permission from have also seen the film and have been very supportive. “I was open about how I was going to be talking about the film and wanted to be able to name him, so I checked in with them again,” she says. “Most people know someone who has been through something like this, and I hope it leads to more conversation and people connecting with one another because we are losing a lot of human interaction behind our screens. And the smallest gestures can matter.”
To that end, Madsen recalls asking a veteran how he really felt when people say, “Thank you for your service.” She reveals, “He said, ‘If there is meaning behind those words, it feels really good.’ If you mean it and you give someone that moment, you could make someone’s day.”