Before landing the lead role in “Matlock,” Kathy Bates was “considering semi-retirement.” Now, she can’t stop.
“My friends say I’ll probably be like Molière and die in my chair on stage,” says Bates, “because it’s really a life force for me.”
Since her first role in Miloš Forman’s 1971 film “Taking Off,” she has worked steadily. But it wasn’t until Bates was 42 years old, when she won an Oscar for best actress for playing the abusive Annie Wilkes in “Misery,” that everything changed.
“I always knew going into this business that it would take me a while because I wasn’t a beauty queen,” says the actress, 76, Diversity. “I have to say that I win from within when I see friends who were beauty queens who are no longer working because of ageism, and in my case, I have been able to continue working for many years because I don’t care. therefore. I don’t think I would have got the role in ‘Misery’ if I was a beauty queen.”
She borrows a quote from her character Annie Wilkes: “Kathy Bates is not the movie star type.”
Now Bates has a prolific TV career with 13 Emmy nominations and two wins, proving once again that she’s the kind of TV star she is—by landing the lead role in CBS’ reimagining of “Matlock” (she’s also an executive producer ). In the legal drama, which premieres on September 22, Bates plays Madeline “Matty” Matlock, a 70-something lawyer who joins a respected New York law firm. Faced with ageism from her peers, she takes advantage of it while harboring ulterior motives of her own. (There is a twist at the end of the pilot that surprised Bates).
CBS
The first season tackles hot button topics, including the #MeToo movement. In one episode, Matty is assigned the case of a young woman who claims she was sexually assaulted. However, the attorney disagrees with her client’s point of view. Bates says she can relate and “had the exact same response as Matty.”
“Let me preface by saying that I am very sympathetic to the #MeToo movement. I think it goes a little too far sometimes, but I’m not one to say – I’ve never been in her shoes,” says Bates. “It’s just that my experience was different.”
But she understands where Matty is coming from. “Matty said, ‘In my day, I wouldn’t get drunk with this man. That’s ridiculous,’” says Bates. “I don’t think Matty is a wise person, I don’t think things have changed that much for young women.”
That is not to say that Bates fully identifies with her sly character. Unlike Matty, Bates is “too much of a kiss-and-tell girl”—she shares “too much,” even with strangers. And while she can be charming on screen, she doesn’t like to pretend in real life.
Bates had to “dig deep” when she took on the role. She started thinking about her mother. “There’s a lot of my mother in Matty – or, let’s say, there’s a lot of what I think my mother could be if she had the chance to realize her dream and become a lawyer. I think about that frustration of having such a dream and having that dream suppressed by the time she lived,” says Bates.
Throughout the years, she has met so many people from so many walks of life — and many times she has wondered what she would have done if she had gone down a different career path.
“What could I do with my life? What possibilities did I not even know were possible when I went to school because I was so focused on being an actor? Now that I’ve gone out to the end of my life, I think, wow, I can’t go back. You made your bed. You’re just laying there, having a great time,” says Bates. “I think, just getting to this moment when I’m talking to you, I realize that this is what I wanted to do. As hard as it’s been, and I can’t believe it’s been 50 years, I think what I’m really trying to give people is compassion.”
After years of supporting roles — including six different disturbing characters in Ryan Murphy’s “American Horror Story” franchise — Bates is finally in the lead for the first time in six years.
But the biggest challenge is the stamina it takes to star in a broadcast drama.
“It’s helped me a lot that I’ve lost 100 pounds over the last six or seven years.” she says. “I don’t think I’ve been this skinny since college.”
When she led NBC’s “Harry’s Law” in 2011, she was at her heaviest. “I had to sit down every minute I could. It was difficult for me to walk. I’m ashamed that I let myself get out of shape, but now I have a lot of energy.”
Bates says she doesn’t expect to revisit “American Horror Story” and if she does does deciding to retire, as recently reported, she hopes to do “several years” of “Matlock” first.
“I can’t believe I’m saying this about doing episodic television, but this has been a challenge and a joy,” she says. “Matty is definitely my magic carpet right now, and I want her to sail for a long time.”
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