‘Matlock’ script made Bates reconsider retiring from acting
Stop the presses — Kathy Bates isn’t ready to retire after “Matlock” like we thought.
She was “one foot out the door” with her acting career until she read showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman’s script for the Andy Griffith drama reboot, Bates told ABC’s George Pennacchio during a red carpet interview Sunday at the 76th Emmy Awards.
Bates said the retirement buzz was “kind of a misunderstanding” after she referred to “Matlock” as her “last dance” in an interview with the New York Times last week.
“I was very flattered that everybody was upset,” the “Misery” star told “ET” at the Emmys.
Bates will star as gender-flipped protagonist Madeline Matlock in the reboot, a lawyer returning to work at a law firm using “her unassuming demeanour and wily tactics to win cases and expose corruption from within,” the show’s synopsis reads.
Co-star Skye P. Marshall said in the same “ET” interview that she would “drag (Bates) out of her house kicking and screaming if she thinks America, or the world, is going to let her retire after ‘Matlock.’”
Bates, 76, started acting in 1970 and has been nominated for one Tony, four Oscars and 14 Emmy awards. She won an Academy Award for lead actress for her portrayal of Annie Wilkes in the 1990 thriller “Misery,” and other roles have earned her two Primetime Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.
In the Times interview, the Memphis-born actor said she had contemplated retirement even before the reboot came her way. Bates told the New York Times she wanted to end her career after a movie shoot had gone awry. A day after filming on the unnamed project, Bates reportedly called her agents to inform them she was ready to retire.
Then, in January, she received the scripts for the “Matlock” reboot.
Bates, who is an executive producer on “Matlock,” said she sees the show as an opportunity to showcase the skills she has honed over her career.
Her credits also include films “Titanic” and “Fried Green Tomatoes,” and appearances on the TV series “The Office” and “Two and a Half Men.”
“Everything I’ve prayed for, worked for, clawed my way up for, I am suddenly able to be asked to use all of it,” she said, before adding, “It’s exhausting.”
“Matlock” premieres Sunday at 8 p.m. on CBS and Global TV.