Amy Madigan was photographed Oct. 28 in Malibu. Artistic and Fashion Director Alison Edmond. Brunello Cucinelli suit, shirt; vintage Christian Louboutin brogues; Madigan's own jewelry. Photographed by Chantal Anderson; Hair: Ted Gibson for Exclusive Artists/TED GIBSON BEAUTY WELLNESS SCIENCE; Makeup: Nick Barose for Exclusive Artists using La Mer. A woman is sitting alone in the back of a sleepy Malibu café. She's in her mid-70s, with striking blond hair running just past her shoulders, wearing a long-sleeved black crew neck. She has newspaper pages splayed across her table, reading keenly between sips of coffee. The clanging of dirty dishes being gathered in the back kitchen does not bother her. The scene feels routine, set by a regular who prefers a late-afternoon arrival to enjoy the peace of a restaurant resetting itself between prime mealtimes. I walk past the woman to set up at a nearby table, in prep for an interview with the actress Amy Madigan. Before I can sit, my phone buzzes with a text from an unfamiliar local number: "I'm sitting inside." I turn around. The woman is still reading, still undisturbed. But it has to be her. "Amy?" I ask as I backtrack toward her. She smiles warmly. She got here early. Related Stories Movies Santa Barbara Film Fest: Sydney Sweeney, Jacob Elordi and Chase Infiniti Among Eight Tapped for Virtuosos Award Movies 'Rebuilding' Review: Josh O'Connor Is Heart-Wrenching in a Tender Portrait of Post-Wildfire Loss and Resilience Madigan has a history of hiding in plain sight. While a whole generation of moviegoers may have only just discovered this, the veteran character actress has made her name, again and again, as a true chameleon. I genuinely didn't recognize Madigan in Weapons, the smash-hit horror film that has thrust her back into the Hollywood spotlight after years of fighting for even small roles, until her name popped up in the end credits. At that moment, I yelped with delight. Such is the Amy Madigan effect: It might take a minute to recognize her - but once you do, her imprint is unmistakable and unforgettable. In Weapons, 17 third-grade children go missing in a small Pennsylvania town at the exact same time. The film's final act reveals that one of their classmate's supposed aunts, Gladys (played by Madigan), is actually a witch and behind it all: She's enchanted the kids into transferring their life force onto her, to keep her alive and kicking (or, I guess, killing) amid her deteriorating health. The movie, directed by Barbarian's Zach Cregger, has grossed $268 million worldwide since its August release. Madigan's unhinged creation - her smeared clown-like makeup, her forehead-exposing auburn wig, her spunkily menacing fast talk - has evolved into the year's most unexpected social media icon. Last month, Reddit threads sprouted up, dedicated to assembling the perfect Gladys Halloween costume. "I'll call her every now and again, and I'll be like, 'Amy, are you aware of what's going on?' " says Cregger. "She's like, 'No! Tell me.' " Madigan, 75, is not on social media, but Cregger and others send her the TikToks, the reels, the dances, the memes. "As you very well know, the gay community has really taken to Gladys," she says to me with pride as I open my notebook. "That's really great - especially in this framework of the demonization of anybody other than a cis person - for the trans community. I think they really appreciate Gladys' drag and makeup and how confident she is. So that's a really nice cherry on top of all this." And how to describe "all this"? Madigan seems bewildered by these past few months, and as she folds up her newspaper and puts it away, tells me that she's nervous even about this conversation. She made her feature debut in 1982; four years later, she was nominated for an Oscar. She went on to play significant roles in everything from '80s classics Field of Dreams and Uncle Buck to the 2000s HBO hit Carnivàle. Somewhere along the way, the offers dried up. "There was a long period of time where she really didn't work at all, or very little," actor Ed Harris, her husband of 42 years, tells me. "She was considering just stopping and giving up on it." "Let's say I'd be in the airport and someone recognized me - they'd go, 'Oh, are you still acting?' or 'So what are you doing? Did you give up acting?' " Madigan says. "Those kinds of questions, just straight out!" Her pitch spikes here, the first time I can spot Gladys' glorious quirks in the Madigan before me - except they're endearing, not terrifying. When Weapons came along, it was, above all, Madigan's first juicy part in years. "I was telling everybody, 'Hey, I'm going to play this really wild lady,' " she says. "Then it came out, and it turned into something else. It feels very antithetical to the work that I do and how I live my life." Brunello Cucinelli jacket; Madigan's own jewelry. Photographed by Chantal Anderson *** Madigan was born and raised on Chicago's South Side. She grew up as a