The Re-Invention of Kathy Bates
The Matlock star’s life and career revival is a unique success story. Here’s how the Oscar winner did it.
By Alex Ben Block
Since landing her first movie and theater roles half a century ago, Kathy Bates has won an Oscar, two Emmys, two Golden Globes, and many other honors, during a career showcasing her talent, range and diversity.
She has also proven her longevity in a business that can be cruel to actors, especially women, few of whom enjoy a sustained career as she has.
Kathy Bates in a 2024 photo, credit: Sonja Flemming
Bates attributes her longevity to being willing to take the best roles offered, and to working hard to make each special.
“To sustain a career, mainly means being able to sustain a character,” explained Bates. “You know, you can be natural or you can be realistic, which means that you have to fulfill all of the demands of that character throughout the journey of the film. And in order to do that, you must have learned your craft.”
Bates has shown her ability to both sustain her career and create a memorable character, as she has done in her new CBS hit show, a new take on “Matlock. After only two airings the Tiffany network renewed the series for a second season. The weekly show has become a favorite with audiences.
The series was created by a team led by Jennie Snyder Urman, the Executive Producer, writer and showrunner, whose past credits include the series “Jane The Virgin.”
Urman, 49, said she had been looking for a TV series to revive, that could be made over in a way that was fresh and relevant to today’s society.
“I just thought, what if I can create a character that constantly tells the audience that she’s underestimated, we see it happening over and over again,” said Urman, “and we watch it and we enjoy it, and then by the end, we even underestimated her.”
She found her perfect star in Bates, who is doing her first network series in a decade after starring in movies and limited series over recent years, and almost retiring.
“Even beyond her huge talent, I'd ascribe Kathy's longevity to the respect, precision and rigor she applies to her craft,” said Urman. “It's as inspiring to watch the depth of her preparation, as it is to watch the final outcome.”
Bates has overcome great obstacles along the way including not looking like the typical star, health problems, and occasionally being cast in inept productions that left her disappointed.
Even after becoming a star, she thought her career was over in 2012 when the TV series “Harry’s Law,” in which she starred, was abruptly cancelled after two seasons. That same summer Bates was diagnosed with breast cancer. She’d survived Ovarian cancer in 2003.
“I really felt that my career was at an end,” recalled Bates “I didn't know what I was going to do.”
Her renaissance began during a conversation with her friend Jessica Lange, with whom she appeared in the 2009 comedy/drama “Cheri.”
Lange had recently worked on American Horror Story: Coven, for prolific producer/writer Ryan Murphy.
“I said, wow, this is a great show,” recalled Bates. “The writing is terrific. I'd love to meet this guy Ryan Murphy.”
Lange made the introduction and soon Murphy cast Bates as Madame Delphine LaLaurie, the first of five characters she’d play on the series over six episodes.
Her career was back on track and so was her health after she opted to have a preventive double mastectomy.
Then Bates received an Emmy in 2014 for portraying Madame La Laurie on American Horror Story.
“That Emmy was a big, big deal for me,” said Bates. “I think it was a big deal for them too. Their numbers went up. So, I really credit Ryan for giving me that opportunity. And, and it gave me a whole new demographic that I'm benefiting from now. He really turned things around for me.”
Bates started life in Memphis, Tennessee, as one of four daughters of Bertve Kathleen Bates and her mechanical engineer husband Langdon Doyle Bates.
When she was born, Bates has quipped, "My mother said when i was born the doctor smacked me on the behind, I thought it was applause and I've been looking for it ever since."
She recalled her mother as being “tough” when Bates was growing up: “She was born so early in the century. She didn't have many opportunities. A lot of women didn't. So she was married, and had a family.”
“She was very smart,’ continued Bates. “The main thing my mother gave to me was reading, the love of words. And she also said, ‘you can do anything you set your mind to.””
“When I came along very late in life,” recalled Bates, “ both of them gave up the money they would've had to retire in order to put me through a good school. And if they hadn't done that, I wouldn't be talking to you. They were determined to give me a good life. That has created a determination in me, when there are moments when I wanted to give up, that I have to keep going.”
Bates fell in love with acting after appearing in a play at Southern Methodist University. She remembered thinking to herself, “I will do anything I have to be part of this.”
She went to New York City after graduation where things were not easy at first. She had a series of menial jobs to pay for acting classes at the William Esper Studio and to survive. She got her first movie role (non-speaking) in the 1971 comedy Taking Off, credited as Bobo Bates.
Her agent at the time told her she was not sufficiently attractive enough to be successful.
"I'm not a stunning woman,” she told the New York Times in a 1991 interview. “I never was an ingenue; I've always just been a character actor. When I was younger it was a real problem, because I was never pretty enough for the roles that other young women were being cast in. The roles I was lucky enough to get were real stretches for me.”
She did find various roles on TV, in the occasional film and off-Broadway. She then found real success as lead actress in the Pulitzer Prize winning play “night Mother,” and was nominated for a Tony Award.
When the play went to Hollywood and became a movie, Bates was replaced in the role by another actress, which was a huge disappointment for her. That is when she decided she had to go to Hollywood as well.
It was in Los Angeles she was discovered by director Rob Reiner, who had seen her in a play. He cast Bates as Annie Wilkes in the 1990 movie “Misery,” based on the book by Steven King. In her memorable role, her character tortured her favorite author, played by James Caan. She famously slams him with a sledge hammer in the movie.
Misery was a critical and box office hit. It earned her an Oscar. She has since been Oscar-nominated for” Primary Colors” (1998) and “Richard Jewell” (2029)
Misery also made Bates a bankable Hollywood headliner.
Over the next decade Bates found a steady stream of work. Still, even with success, she felt many people didn’t take her very seriously as an actress.
“If we call ourselves artists,” said Bates, “when we say we are ‘working,’ they sarcastically say, ’Yeah, that’s work.’ But it takes hard work to get here. They hear you asked for such an amount of money for a job, and they say, ‘that’s a lot of money.” But who was it, Brad Pitt, who said, ‘you're not paying me for this job. You're paying me for the last 40 years of jobs.”
Even though professional opportunities continued to come along, Bates still felt the onset of age as she entered her 70s. “I think it's difficult in our society,” she lamented, “because we don't have a culture that values old people.”
In 2017 Bates was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes, which led to a reevaluation of her life and body. She recalled her weight causing her to have to sit down at times when she had starred in “Harry’s Law.” She became determined to peel off the pounds.
She changed her diet to eat only healthy foods, stopped eating after 8 p.m. and began to regularly walk outside and on a treadmill at home. She lost 80 pounds but then hit a wall.
That was when she turned to the popular diet drug Ozempic, which helped her lose another 20 pounds.
“I have to impress on people out there that this was hard work for me,” Bates told People Magazine, “especially during the pandemic. It’s very hard to say you’ve had enough.”
After losing 100 pounds and she felt like a new person. It even helped her better control her lymphedema, which she had contracted as a result of some treatments for breast cancer.
It was through that experience that “by accident” her doctor introduced her to the CEO of LE&RN, the Lymphatic Education & Research Network. (Pronounced ‘Learn.”)
Bates has become a passionate advocate and national spokesperson for the Lymphatic Education & Research Network (LE&RN), which sheds light on the little known diseases, Lymphedema & Lymphatic, both of which she experienced.
“'I’ve been working now with them for the last decade,” said Bates. “And it's been an amazing experience for me.”
Then Bates was cast in a movie she thought offered her a great part – until she saw the completed picture.
“I had done a film which I won't mention the name of, and was incredibly disappointed, more than I think I've been,” said Bates. “It really, really broke my heart. I've been in this business a long time, and I don't think I've experienced anything like that.”
After Bates was shocked and dismayed by the way her role had been edited she called her agents and said, “Look, I don't think I can deal with this anymore. The disappointment was just heartbreaking. I'm considering going into semi-retirement.”
Soon after she did a press interview and mentioned she might retire. That ignited rumors she was retiring for good.
Bates these days is very selective about what media interviews she does, after years of both good and as she said, “horrible” experiences with the press.
She dates her media angst all the way back to interviews she did for “Misery,” many of which were a misery for her.
She recalls that at one press junket the first question she got was, “’You're not Michelle Pfeiffer.’ And my heart sank, and I thought, ‘oh, dear God, is this what it's going to be like?’”
“I've had horrible experiences in England,” she recalled. “Many years ago, I left the tour early because of the rudeness.”
“When I first started out, I felt after an interview that somebody had come into my brain and moved all the furniture out,” she said laughing. “it was a scary feeling. And I’d go home and worry maybe I shouldn't have said this. Maybe I shouldn't have that said that. And even nowadays, sometimes feel like I said the wrong thing in an interview.”
She said she did get interesting questions from international journalists, mostly about the content of the movie or show. “They often had a different take than American journalists.”
“Over the years, my relationship with the press has improved, in terms of my own interest,” continued Bates. “At times we do have interesting conversations. Sometimes I didn't want the interview to end because I really enjoyed talking to the reporter. And, I always want to put things out there that are truthful.”
Shortly after Bates make headlines by saying she was thinking about retiring, her agent sent over a script for her to read.
“Lo and behold, I got this excellent script, called Matlock,” continued Bates. “And so it excited me because it was not just television episodic, which I had done many years ago, but there was substance to it. Madeline Matlock was really on a mission to help the fight against the opioid crisis.”
She met with the filmmakers, and was especially impressed by Urman.
Her character differed from the folksy approach Andy Griffith took as Matlock from 1986 to 1995. He primarily solved murder cases. Bates Matlock is more a clever lawyer using her wit and wisdom to solve all kinds of cases, while helping people, as she also worked on a secret plot very personal to her character.
She also became an Executive Producer of Matlock: “I get to look at cuts before they're locked and give my two cents. I've been welcomed by Jenny because of my longevity in the business.”
“Kathy is the rare actor who can stand at the center of those tones and create a character so layered and grounded that you are with her through every contour of the story,” said Urman. “Kathy can make you emotional in an instant, and then laugh the moment after. She can show you the steel spine of Matty and simultaneously make you aware of her soft heart underneath. She can be utterly charming, while being completely underhanded.”
Bates now has no plans to retire. She looks forward to staying with the series as long as it runs.
“You have to put the heart and soul there,” said Bates. “That's what reaches out of the screen to touch people. That's what I feel Matlock has done. We're having real experiences about real people.”
Note: This article is an expanded version of a profile of Bates done by this author when Bates won the Legend Award from the Los Angeles Press Club at its National Arts & Entertainment Awards, awarded on December 1, 2024.
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