Old Dominion shooter shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ before deadly rampage: officials
A former Army National Guard soldier convicted of supporting ISIS has been identified as the gunman in a deadly shooting at Old Dominion University (ODU) on Thursday, reportedly shouting “Allahu Akbar” before opening fire.
“We have confirmed reports that prior to him conducting this act of terrorism, he shouted all our stated Allahu Akbar,” Special Agent in Charge Dominique Evans said in a Thursday evening press conference.
The FBI said earlier it is investigating the shooting at ODU as an act of terrorism.
Multiple federal sources confirmed to Fox News that the suspected shooter was 36-year-old Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Sierra Leone.
Jalloh, who was in jail for his involvement in supporting the Islamic State, was released approximately 15 months before the fatal shooting at the Virginia university.
A spokesperson with the Virginia National Guard confirmed to Fox News Digital that Jalloh served from April 30, 2009, to April 29, 2015, and he held the rank of specialist when he left with an honorable discharge. He served in the 276th Engineer Battalion, 91st Troop Command as a combat engineer, they said.
In 2017, Jalloh, a former member of the Virginia National Guard, was sentenced to 11 years in prison plus five years supervised release for attempting to provide material support to ISIS, according to the Department of Justice. He was released from jail in Dec. 2024.
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He was originally arrested on July 3, 2016, after authorities said he tried to help procure weapons for what he believed would be an ISIS-inspired attack on U.S. soil and separately attempted to send money to support ISIS, according to the criminal complaint.
According to the Justice Department, Jalloh was compelled to leave the U.S. military after he began listening to the online lectures of Al-Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Aulaqi. The department also said that Jalloh “praised” the July 2015 terrorist attack in Chattanooga, Tennessee, when a gunman opened fire and killed four U.S. Marines and a Navy sailor.
Jalloh also shared that he had been thinking about conducting an attack similar to the attack at Ft. Hood, Texas, in November 2009, which killed 13 people and wounded 32 others.
In a letter asking for a judge for leniency, Jalloh shared his love for America, writing: “I have and have always had deep respect and still have respect for the American people and the American values that I pledged to serve.”
“I reject and deplore terrorism and any groups associated with it, especially ISIL. I hate how I allowed myself to be manipulated and how ISIL manipulates troubled and impressionable people like me with their religious propaganda by appealing to Islamic solidarity and a skewed interpretation of selective verses from the Quran. I feel like a complete idiot for accepting such a superficial and dishonest interpretation of Islam, and for blindly accepting what I was being told,” he wrote.
“I will make It my life’s mission to telling the truth about ISIL and all Islamic terrorists, and to prevent other troubled young men from falling prey to their propaganda like I did. I love the United States of America. I have always been grateful to this nation for what it has done for me and my family.”
In the letter, Jalloh shared that he attended college at Old Dominion University and joined the National Guard.
“Since I first came to the United States, I have loved this country deeply for saving me and my family, and for giving me so many opportunities that I would not have otherwise…. I always felt a desire to give back [so n]ot long after I started college at Old Dominion, I joined the Virginia Army National Guard as a way of contributing and helping protect this great country and see it prosper. Since I was young I had been inspired by seeing soldiers in uniform and believed in the noble purpose of the military. I wanted to be part of that and to give back. I wanted to be a good soldier and make my family proud.”
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In a statement on social media, FBI Director Kash Patel said that the agency is “now investigating the shooting as an act of terrorism.”
“Earlier today, an armed individual opened fire at Old Dominion University, leaving one person dead and two others wounded. The shooter is now deceased thanks to a group of brave students who stepped in and subdued him – actions that undoubtedly saved lives along with the quick response of law enforcement,” Patel said.
“The FBI is now investigating the shooting as an act of terrorism. Our Joint Terrorism Task Force is fully engaged, embedded with local authorities, and providing all resources necessary in the investigation. In the meantime, please pray for the victims, their families, and the ODU community.”
Dem lawmaker comments on woman’s appearance for sharing trans athlete concerns
Arizona state senator Catherine Miranda, a Democrat, has come under scrutiny on social media after an exchange with former NCAA volleyball player and “save women’s sports” activist Kaylie Ray.
Ray showed up to the Arizona Senate Education committee hearing on Wednesday to lobby for a bill that would protect women’s sports from biological males. She spoke from the perspective of a former Utah State captain who led a team forfeit against San Jose State in 2024, in protest of a trans athlete on San Jose State University (SJSU).
After Ray shared her testimony, Miranda opened her response by commenting on Ray’s appearance.
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“I have my sports hat on now. It’s all about a sports mentality, growing up in sports, being a tomboy. I mean, you look pretty healthy. I’ve played against girls that look like you. You look very much in shape and strong,” Miranda said.
The state senator then argued against Ray’s position and the bill by claiming she had competed against men herself in sports, and would compete against men in sports and ended her lecture with the question, “How competitive do you think you really are?”
At no point in Miranda’s response did she ever use the word “transgender” or even “male” or “female.” She simply referred to male opponents as “men.”
“It’s a sports mentality when you’re growing up and how much competition that you’ll take on. So it’s not just a silver bullet for one community of sports players, it’s the individual person on how competitive you wanna be. So you grew up one way. I grew up a different way. I would have taken on a man in a heartbeat. I’ve played in, I was the only girl sometimes in sports. But to have a man on my team, I would have welcomed it,” Miranda said.
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“But this is just my opinion … and that’s why this bill is bad, because you’re just putting a whole community of women’s sports in one category. When women like me, we have a different opinion. So, how competitive do you think you really are?”
According to a 2017 post in Hispanic Engineer & Technology, Miranda previously spoke about her experience playing sports with her brother.
“Sports was my life. There were four girls and one boy in my family. My brother turned me into his ‘little brother’ so he could have someone to play sports with. I was a 100% tomboy,” and claimed she was the only girl to play in a local little league, the website reported.
Ray argued back to Miranda at the hearing that the proposed bill would include three gender categories, male, female and co-ed.
“If you want to compete against your man, absolutely, let’s do that in the co-ed section,” Ray said.
“The clarity and distinction is really important. Because when men are allowed access into women’s sports and spaces, it isn’t women’s sports and spaces anymore.”
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Ray has provided an expanded response to Miranda in a statement to Fox News Digital.
“I wonder if she could look Riley Gaines, Brooke Slusser, Lainey Armistead, Madison Kenyon, Mary Kate Marshall, and every single girl who has been forced to compete against a man in the eyes and tell them they simply are not competitive enough?” Ray said.
“Wanting fairness does not make someone a coward. Wanting safe and equal competition does not mean a girl does not have what it takes. It means she respects herself and the effort and dedication that women have put into building opportunities in sports. . . . No single woman has the right to give away the opportunities and protections that so many others worked so hard to secure.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to Miranda’s office for comment.
Ray, a three-time Mountain West conference championship, was one of five conference teams to forfeit at least one match to San Jose State in the 2024 season amid controversy over trans athlete Blaire Fleming. After finishing her graduate degree at Weber State in 2025, she spoke at a ‘save women’s sports’ rally outisde the U.S. Supreme Court in January.
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She spoke alongside Slusser, who was the SJSU co-captain who filed a lawsuit after sharing a team and apartment with Fleming in 2023 without knowing Fleming was a transgender biological male.
The SJSU controversy has come back into the national spotlight in 2026, after the school as the university has sued the federal government to challenge a Deparment of Education investigation that determined the school violated Title IX in its handling of Fleming.
U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon responded to the lawsuit on Wednesday, giving the university a deadline of 10 days to come to a resolution agreement, or face funding cuts and a referral to the Department of Justice.
Leavitt demands ABC retract story claiming FBI warned Iran could attack California
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt demanded Thursday that ABC News retract a story claiming that the FBI has officially warned Iran may try to attack California with drones.
ABC News posted on Wednesday, “BREAKING: The FBI has warned police departments in California that Iran wants to retaliate for American attacks by launching offensive drones against the West Coast, according to an alert reviewed by @ABC News.”
Leavitt blasted the post, writing, “This post and story should be immediately retracted by ABC News for providing false information to intentionally alarm the American people.”
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She added further, “They wrote this based on one email that was sent to local law enforcement in California about a single, unverified tip. The email even states the tip was based on *unverified* intelligence. Yet ABC News left out this critical fact in their story! WHY?”
“TO BE CLEAR: No such threat from Iran to our homeland exists, and it never did,” she wrote.
She followed up by retweeting a post with side-by-side screenshots of the story ABC wrote and the FBI alert actually sent out. The post from Assistant Director for Public Affairs at the FBI Ben Williamson read, “On the left is the way ABC (or their source) reported the FBI alert. On the right is the actual FBI alert that went to JTFF partners. You will notice the word left out —’Unverified.’”
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ABC News has since updated its story with an editor’s note declaring, “The FBI has posted a fuller version of its alert to California authorities, which includes that the information was unverified. The latest version of this story has been updated with the full statement.”
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Asked about the unverified report in the alert, President Donald Trump said Wednesday, “It’s being investigated. But you have a lot of things happening, and all we can do is take them as they come, and the war itself is being prosecuted as well as anybody has ever seen.”
Texas judge claims racism after being escorted from rodeo despite $9K in freebies
A Texas judge said she was manhandled while attending a concert at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo this week after staffers refused to let her access a VIP area and escorted her out of the venue, questioning whether she was the victim of racism or sexism, despite being given $9,000 worth of freebies.
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said she and five guests –another elected official, the official’s children, and the parents of a US Air Force sergeant who recently passed away — attended a Megan Moroney concert at the popular rodeo show on Tuesday.
However, the group was barred from the venue’s premium floor access area – the chute ticket area known as “the dirt” — because they had not paid the $425 per head price tag for wristbands and the show was sold out, the rodeo said in a response to a Fox News Digital request for comment.
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Hildalgo said she had previously been allowed on the floor access area without a wristband “based on the county’s relationship with the rodeo.” She said she assumed the area was “friends of rodeo leaders or for rodeo leaders or such.”
The judge said she then asked if her guests could be let into the area before she was grabbed, shoved and threatened with arrest.
“I understand the rodeo committee members have a job to do,” Hidalgo wrote in a scathing letter to rodeo board chairwoman Pat Phillips and rodeo president Chris Boleman. “They are trying to keep thousands of people safe at the largest rodeo in the world. I did not want to prevent the committee members from doing their jobs, nor was I trying to take advantage of ‘privileges’ or call in favors. I was not even interested in seeing the concert. I was only interested in helping community members enjoy an important event.”
Rodeo officials said Hidalgo was asked several times to return to the county suite where she was seated before. She was then asked to leave and was escorted out of the venue.
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“There were numerous law enforcement officers who were present and none saw any physical harm including ‘manhandling,’ Phillips and Boleman said in a joint letter addressing the matter. “Ultimately, when she would not go back to her designated seats in the suite, she was escorted out.”
Rodeo officials said Hidalgo requested, and was given $9,000 worth of floor access tickets for herself and her guests for three previous nights for concerts to see J Balvin, Dwight Yoakam and Luke Bryan.
“We are very disappointed in Judge Hidalgo’s actions Tuesday night and since,” Phillips and Boleman said. “But we must enforce the same access policies for everyone. The Judge is the only elected official to request, even demand, these seats night after night. As Chairwoman of the Board, the idea that she was treated this way because she’s a woman or Hispanic is absolutely false and insulting.”
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In a Wednesday letter to Phillips and Boleman, the judge said she has “never accepted anything inappropriately or used my role to personally enrich myself even though many others have.”
She further questioned the treatment she would have received had she been a “male county executive,” before claiming that White men have “felt emboldened to treat others, particularly Hispanics with physical force.”
“I don’t travel without my passport anymore,” she wrote. “Many of us do, especially those of us who are not white-passing.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Hidalgo.
The Houston Police Officers’ Union posted an illustration on its Facebook page of a law enforcement officer escorting a woman by her arm as she says, “I’m the County Judge.” The union said the image was satire.
On her Facebook and Instagram pages, Hidalgo shared videos of her leaving the concert venue from her vantage point, as well as audio recordings with rodeo staffers.
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“This is not about a wristband or a ticket or a concert,” she said. “It is about the mentality of some people and the way they treat others.”
“If this is how they treat me — by virtue of my position the Ex-Officio Director of the rodeo, landlord, because NRG stadium belongs to Harris County and leases to the rodeo, how do they treat everybody else?” she added.
A Harris County judge, Hidalgo serves as its chief executive and presiding officer of the Commissioners Court, the county’s governing body, managing a budget over $4 billion.
Daily multivitamin has surprising effect on speed of aging, study finds
Aging can’t be stopped, but a daily pill could slow it down, according to new research led by Mass General Brigham in Boston.
Among people who took a multivitamin every day for two years, biological aging slowed down by about four months, found the study, which was published in Nature Medicine.
Biological aging refers to the pace of aging on a cellular level, which is often different from chronological age.
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The findings came from a large randomized clinical trial of nearly 1,000 healthy older adults averaging 70 years of age. The participants were divided into four groups — one took a daily multivitamin-multimineral supplement along with a cocoa extract, one took a daily cocoa extract and placebo, one took a placebo and multivitamin, and one took just a placebo, according to the study press release.
The researchers analyzed blood samples taken from the participants at three points during the study, looking at five biomarkers known as “epigenetic clocks” that measure age-related changes to DNA.
“Aging at the cellular level can be marked by DNA methylation, where in some cells it decreases and in some it increases,” Dr. Marc Siegel, Fox News senior medical analyst, told Fox News Digital. “This is also described as epigenetic changes – or DNA expression.”
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Those who took multivitamins showed a biological aging slowdown across all biomarkers, including the two that are linked to longevity.
The biggest benefit was seen in those who already had a biological age that was older than their chronological age, the researchers found.
“There is a lot of interest today in identifying ways to not just live longer, but to live better,” said senior author Howard Sesso, associate director of the Division of Preventive Medicine in the Mass General Brigham Department of Medicine, in the press release.
“It was exciting to see the benefits of a multivitamin linked with markers of biological aging. This study opens the door to learning more about accessible, safe interventions that contribute to healthier, higher-quality aging.”
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Siegel, who was not involved in the study, described the results as “scientific and significant,” agreeing that they should be studied further.
It’s not clear which part of the multivitamin might be responsible for the aging slowdown, the doctor noted.
“There is a lot of interest today in identifying ways to not just live longer, but to live better.”
“There are so many possibilities, from biotin to calcium to zinc to vitamin B, C or D … to niacin and to metals like magnesium and copper,” he told Fox News Digital. “I am personally a believer in riboflavin, thiamine and vitamin D, but further research is needed to parse this out and determine a cause-effect relationship.”
There were some limitations of the research, including that the aging effects were small, and it’s not yet known how they might affect actual medical outcomes.
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The study population was also limited to mostly older ages and those of European ancestry, which could mean it wouldn’t be generalized to larger groups.
The research also did not explore the relationship between epigenetic clock changes and actual health outcomes, such as lower disease risk or greater lifespan.
The researchers are now planning follow-up research to explore whether the slowdown of biological aging continued after the trial, as well as the impact these improvements may have on clinical outcomes.
Additional studies will also look at other potential benefits of daily multivitamins, such as cognitive function and reduced cancer risk.
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“A lot of people take a multivitamin without necessarily knowing any benefits from taking it, so the more we can learn about its potential health benefits, the better,” said Sesso. “We are fortunate and excited to build upon a rich resource of biomarker data to test how two interventions may improve biological aging and reduce age-related clinical outcomes.”
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The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health.
World No 4 golfer carted off after freak practice swing injury ends tournament
PGA Tour winner Collin Morikawa played just one hole at The Players Championship after withdrawing due to injury on Thursday.
Morikawa, 29, made par on the 10th hole, the lone hole he would play, before stunningly injuring his back on a practice swing.
“I felt fine in warm-up,” Morikawa said, according to the New York Post. “Like nothing’s been any signs of back problems. Honestly, (on the) first hole (I) felt great, hit two great shots, hit a great putt. Teed it up, nothing felt bad. (I) teed it up on 11 and took one practice swing and I just knew it was gone. It all hit me at one second, where I was like, ‘Something doesn’t feel right.’”
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“I took a practice swing, there it was, like not being able to swing. Trust me, I would play if I could. It’s just the worst thing in the world.”
The fourth-ranked golfer in the world was taken away in a cart. Ludvig Åberg and Si Woo Kim, Morikawa’s partners, played the rest of the round as a twosome.
The Los Angeles native said he is not sure what caused the injury.
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“Before I even took my practice swing, it’s like you had a weird déjà vu thing,” he said. “I took the practice swing and immediately knew I just couldn’t get through impact. At that point, (I) called over my trainer and talked about it with my caddie Mark (Urbanek). It just sucks.
“It’s just frustrating, because I don’t know what caused it. I went through all the warmups (and) felt fine. It’s awful. I feel terrible.’’
Morikawa said he has “had this stuff before” and is focusing on being ready for the Masters.
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Morikawa had a strong start to the 2026 season, making four of five cuts and winning the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am last month.
He finished fifth at the Arnold Palmer Invitational last week, marking his third top-10 finish of the season.
Eight unexplained explosions reported near homes of NYC terror suspects
BUCKS COUNTY, Pa. —Eight unexplained explosions reported over 10 months in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, happened near the homes of two men later accused in an alleged ISIS-inspired New York City terror plot, leaving residents perplexed.
Bensalem Township Police Sgt. Glenn Vandegrift confirmed to Fox News Digital that the department received eight noise complaints between April 2025 and early January 2026 for what residents described as loud bangs.
“After conducting an investigation, detectives closed the case due to a lack of evidence, the inability to determine the exact source of the sounds and the inability to confirm that the noises originated within Bensalem Township,” Vandegrift said. “We have not received any reports of injuries related to these incidents, and at no time did we identify any information indicating a threat to public safety.”
Bensalem resident Rick D’Aguanno told Fox News Digital the explosions were loud and appeared to come from different directions around his neighborhood.
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“It was just loud… loud, random explosions during the evening or different times of the day,” he said.
D’Aguanno said he believed someone may have been setting off fireworks or other explosives and said he was told by a local elected official that a person had been identified, though police said no arrests were made in connection with the incidents.
The reports resurfaced on social media this week as Emir Balat, 18, of Langhorne, and Ibrahim Kayumi, 19, of Newtown, were arrested in New York City. The men are accused of throwing live explosive devices into a protest outside Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s residence, Gracie Mansion, on Saturday.
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D’Aguanno’s home in Bensalem is about three miles from Balat’s residence in Langhorne and roughly 15 miles from Kayumi’s home in Newtown.
The geographic overlap has drawn renewed attention following the arrests.
“At this time, we have no information linking the recent arrests in New York City to the previously reported loud bangs in Bensalem Township,” Vandegrift said. “While we understand there may be interest in drawing a connection between the recent bombing incident in New York City and reports of explosions in the general area of the suspect’s home in Langhorne, our investigation has not identified any evidence establishing such a nexus.”
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Vandegrift noted that no one was arrested in connection with the reports in Bensalem and said if new information were to emerge establishing a credible connection to criminal activity within the township, the case would be reviewed and appropriate action taken. He added that any information suggesting a connection to the New York City incident would be shared with federal authorities.
Anyone with credible information related to the explosions is encouraged to contact Bensalem Township Police. Fox News Digital has also reached out to Middletown Township Police, where Balat resides, for comment.
Federal authorities have detailed the allegations against the two men in court documents.
Prosecutors allege the pair threw a device containing triacetone triperoxide, or TATP, with nuts and bolts attached using duct tape.
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According to The Associated Press, a license plate reader captured the two men entering New York City from New Jersey less than an hour before the alleged attack, which took place around 12:15 p.m.
Kayumi’s mother told authorities she last saw him at about 10:30 a.m. Saturday before filing a missing person report.
Nurse charged after romantic birthday texts surface in murder investigation
A Florida nurse is accused of brutally killing his married co-worker and leaving her body in a busy roadway following a yearslong affair between the pair.
Rene Perez, 38, was arrested in Miami on Tuesday, March 10, according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.
Perez’s arrest comes nearly a year and a half after authorities allege he beat 35-year-old Linda Campitelli, a married mother of two, to death in October 2024, police said.
The pair – who were both married and had been having a two-year-long affair while employed at the Wellington Regional Medical Center– met on Oct. 28, 2024 to celebrate Campitelli’s birthday, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by Fox News Digital.
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Both Perez and Campitelli regularly exchanged messages with each other, with Campitelli complaining about having to share time with Perez with his wife, according to authorities.
Just one day earlier, WhatsApp messages between the two showed Campitelli was feeling “a little nervous” about their planned rendezvous, authorities said.
“I LOVE YOU, I FEEL KINDA WEIRD. I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO EXPECT TOMORROW. YOU’VE NEVER DONE ANYTHING LIKE THIS FOR ME BEFORE AND I FEEL A LITTLE NERVOUS,” Campitelli wrote, according to the affidavit.
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“LOL, IT’S NO BIG DEAL. JUST TRYING TO SHOW U THAT I CAN BE ROMANTIC. IT PROBABLY WONT BE AS GOOD AS WHAT YOU’VE DONE FOR ME,” Perez responded.
Campitelli left her home that night wearing a red dress and black heels after telling her husband that she would be going out to dinner with friends, court documents revealed.
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Shortly after leaving, her Chevy Tahoe arrived at Perez’s former job, the Retina Group of Florida building in Wellington.
An image obtained from Campitelli’s iPhone showed a blanket reading “HAPPY BIRTHDAY HOPE YOUR BIRTHDAY IS OUT OF THIS WORD” placed by Perez in the backseat of her Tahoe, along with Ultrasorbs Medical Sheets commonly used to absorb liquids, according to the affidavit.
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Around 10:20 p.m., several 911 calls were placed to report an unresponsive woman lying in the southbound lanes of Lyons Road, with one caller telling authorities the individual appeared to be “bleeding profusely from the mouth,” authorities said.
Authorities found Campitelli’s lifeless body about 50 feet from her vehicle. She was wearing the same outfit she left home in, and there was “blood leading away from the passenger side of the Chevrolet Tahoe to the victim’s body,” officials said. Her bloodstained Apple Watch was recovered from the center console.
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Following an investigation by the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner’s Office, Campitelli’s death was ruled a homicide resulting from blunt force trauma to the head and torso.
She sustained four lacerations to the right side of her scalp, several contusions throughout her body and a lacerated lung, among other injuries. Severe road rash and scuff marks on her heels also suggested she had been dragged.
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Upon being interviewed by investigators, Perez claimed he had canceled the birthday celebration with Campitelli because his son was sick – though investigators did not find any messages that corroborated his alibi, according to the affidavit.
Following a lengthy investigation, Perez was subsequently taken into custody on charges of first-degree murder with a deadly weapon and tampering with physical evidence, according to PBSO.
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Perez was transported to the Palm Beach County Jail where a judge ordered he be held without bond.
Perez’s attorney did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Matthew Fox says Taylor Sheridan’s scripts made comeback ‘inevitable’
Matthew Fox is returning to television — and the former “Lost” star says it took the right script to bring him back.
Fox stars in “The Madison,” a new drama from “Yellowstone” creator Taylor Sheridan that blends a sweeping love story with an emotional family drama set between Montana and New York City.
After skyrocketing to fame on “Lost,” he explained what drew him to the series.
“Just the material, you know,” Fox told Fox News Digital when asked what made “The Madison” the right project to step back into the spotlight.
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The actor said early conversations with Sheridan about the show’s themes and his character initially piqued his interest.
“I had a couple of conversations with Taylor about the series and … the themes in it. And then we spoke specifically about Paul,” Fox said. “Those conversations were great, and I was very intrigued.”
But he said the moment he read the scripts, he knew the project was something special.
“It wasn’t until I really read the scripts that I was like, ‘Oh, this is absolutely incredible,’” Fox said. “He’s an amazing writer. I’m a big fan of his work.”
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The role also marks a rare return to the spotlight for Fox, who largely walked away from Hollywood after “Lost” wrapped.
Fox reflected on life after the final chapter of the hit series — and the personal decision that led him to step away from the spotlight.
“I felt like it was time to engage really intensely with my family,” Fox admitted in an interview with Variety.
The actor said years of filming and working on major projects meant missing key moments while his children, Kyle and Byron, were growing up.
“I had missed some of their childhood because I was on set all the time with ‘Lost’ and doing films … promoting everything,” Fox said. “It was the right moment for me to step back and take a moment … engage with the people that I love and care about the most in the world.”
During his time away from Hollywood, Fox said he eventually felt the urge to return to acting.
“I kind of missed storytelling,” he added. When the opportunity to join Sheridan’s latest series surfaced, he knew it was the right move.
“I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m in,’” Fox said. “I have a balance definitely.”
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Fox portrays Paul Clyburn — the brother of Kurt Russell’s character, Preston Clyburn, and Stacy Clyburn’s brother-in-law — in “The Madison.”
Paul is portrayed as a self-reliant outdoorsman who feels most at home in nature and becomes one of the key figures in the story centered on the Clyburn family’s life in rural Montana.
Fox added that “The Madison” also struck a personal chord.
“The series itself and the way that he executed them in the scripts just felt special and moving to me,” he said. “Created imagery in my mind that is really important to me because I grew up in a very similar environment … on the Madison River.”
“It just felt like me,” he added. “Sometimes … for me, when I read material, there’s a point where … it just feels like I have to do it, like it’s inevitable. And I certainly felt like that on this one.”
“The Madison” centers on the Clyburn family, a New York City clan navigating grief and transformation after relocating to the Madison River Valley in Montana. The series explores themes of resilience, love and human connection as the family adjusts to life in a dramatically different world.
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The show features a high-profile cast including Russell, Michelle Pfeiffer, Patrick J. Adams, Beau Garrett and more.
Garrett told Fox News Digital the show’s themes of reinvention resonated with her personally, particularly after major life changes in recent years.
“I’m not newly a mom — she’s three now — but that reinvented me,” Garrett said.
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The actress said becoming a mother and leaving Los Angeles for a small town on Vancouver Island reshaped her priorities.
“Meeting my husband and marrying him reinvented me,” Garrett said. “I think we’re always reinventing ourselves and this show felt like the first time in a long time that I got to step back into my creativity after having a baby and that felt … incredibly terrifying and empowering.”
Garrett also recalled feeling starstruck when she first met Pfeiffer ahead of filming.
“I was incredibly nervous to meet Michelle,” she admitted.
Their first on-screen scene together helped break the tension quickly. Garrett said Pfeiffer quickly proved to be both approachable and supportive.
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“She shows up every moment. She’s incredibly kind and gracious and also just really easy to talk to,” Garrett said. “We would sit in the green room and just chat … I was like, ‘OK, this feels like someone I really admire … and respect, but a friend.’”
Meanwhile, Fox also reflected on how dramatically the Hollywood industry has changed since he first broke out on network television.
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“The transition from commercial advertising-based television like ‘Lost’ … with the commercial breaks … having to wait a week for episodes, to the streaming model … has been a huge transition for the business,” he said.
Despite the industry still adjusting to the shift, Fox believes streaming has helped elevate long-form storytelling.
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“I do believe that it’s been an incredibly positive thing for storytelling because it’s opened up an entire world of premises that can be told in as many chapters as they need to be told,” he said.
“The Madison” premieres March 14 on Paramount+.