He began acting at the age of ten, when he appeared in a small role in one of his father's films,[1] and spent time on the set of a number of other films, including Free Willy and The Getaway.[2] His grandmother, filmmaker Elaine Madsen, encouraged him to pursue a career in acting after watching his performances in high school theater.[3] His parents divorced when he was a child and he subsequently "bounced around a lot" between his parents' homes in Malibu, the San Fernando Valley, Santa Fe, and Montana.[4] He eventually moved in with his grandmother when he was 17, and she took him to the Actors Studio and introduced him to the head of its Hollywood branch, Martin Landau.[1]
Madsen's early film career consisted mainly of small roles with his father and independent films. He took on other jobs while continuing to audition for acting roles.[3] He had been auditioning without any successes for over two years[4] and was about to be evicted from his Los Angeles apartment when he won a role in Divergent, a film adaptation of Veronica Roth's young adult novel of the same name.[3]
After filming Divergent, Madsen was cast in the lead role of the independent film Prism, in which he plays a young man who is reunited with his amnesiac father after 15 years.[5] In 2013, he also appeared in Palo Alto, a drama film directed by Gia Coppola, and he has been cast in Jack Squared.[5]
