Kathy Bates Will “Never” Retire Thanks To ‘Matlock’ – Emmys Red Carpet

Rosy Cordero and Anthony D'Alessandro
·2-min read

Despite telling the New York Times that CBS’ Matlock is her last dance, Kathy Bates told Deadline tonight on the Emmys red carpet that she will “never” retire.

Clarifying the headlines out there, she told Rosy Cordero tonight, “I was thinking about maybe going into semi-retirement until I got Jennie Urman’s script for Matlock,” said Bates.

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“I read it and said ‘Oh, yeah, baby, I gotta do this. It’s amazing.’ It’s not just an episodic, there’s an over-arching mystery that goes through the series. Big twist at the end of the pilot,” adds the Misery Oscar winning Best Actress.

Bates had told the New York Times that she had planned on retiring after a movie shoot went south.

“It becomes my life,” she told the NYT of her commitment to her on-screen alter egos and getting projects off the ground, “Sometimes I get jealous of having this talent. Because I can’t hold it back, and I just want my life.”

Bates plays Madeline Matlock as she rejoins the work force at a prestigious law firm, where she uses her wily tactics to win cases and expose wrong-doing. Matlock debuts on CBS and streaming on Paramount+ on Sept. 22. Matlock is an 18 episode order.

Bates counts two Primetime Emmy wins: in 2012 for Best Guest Actress Comedy Series for Two and a Half Men and in 2014 for Best Supporting Actress Miniseries/Movie for FX’s American Horror Story: The Coven.

Bates’ canon includes arcs on TV shows like Six Feet Under and The Office. She also starred in Netflix’s two-season-long 2017 sitcom Disjointed, which follows a medical dispensary’s owner. Her latest turns were in Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret and Netflix’s A Family Affair, opposite Nicole Kidman.

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