How Kathy Bates Cracked ‘Matlock' — with Wisdom from Anthony Hopkins and ‘Fried Green Tomatoes'

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18-06-2025

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A studied actor celebrating her biggest TV role ever at age 76, Kathy Bates recruited some legendary help to get ready for 'Matlock.' In 1992, the year after she won her Academy Award for 'Misery,' Bates presented Anthony Hopkins with his Oscar for 'Silence of the Lambs.'
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The pair caught up in 2021 when Hopkins won Best Actor again for 'The Father.' Both killers of the silver screen, Hannibal Lecter and Annie Wilkes were keen to talk shop — an honor Bates extended to IndieWire as our 2025 Vanguard award winner.
'When he was doing 'The Father,' I had seen a lot of the interviews [Hopkins] was giving to the press,' said Bates. 'He was talking about being an actor who did extensive work on his characters and took tremendous notes on his scripts. At his age now, though, he just learns his lines and learns his lines. Then, he goes out and has a ball.'
Hopkins and Bates are world-famous for disappearing into their characters. What it takes to pull that off is still a mystery to many, but the challenges facing Bates on 'Matlock' are clear. CBS's so-called 'reboot' centers on a quietly extraordinary role and an undeniably genius actor. To hear Bates tell it, you need a robust toolkit to make the part work, and the script is where you start.
'It's interesting to me that [Hopkins] went from being fully prepared to letting it fly and staying in the moment. With this, I find I really have to do both,' said Bates. 'This is not your grandfather's 'Matlock.''
A contemporary Trojan horse, this unique spin on a classic crime title — starring Andy Griffith from 1986 to 1995 — sees Bates leading the charge as Madeline Kingston. Yes, Kingston. The new Matlock is an accomplished attorney too, but one who only assumes the iconic moniker as an alias. Last season, viewers watched Matty Matlock go undercover at Jacobson Moore, an elite law firm in New York City, to investigate its culpability in the opioid epidemic.
'For the pilot especially, to walk into that boardroom, I had to have a fully formed character without being able to relate to any of the other actors,' Bates said. 'I had to really dig deep and find out, 'Who is this woman? How much of myself can I use to create her?''
Confronted inside by megawatt talents Skye P. Marshall, Jason Ritter, and more from the show's stellar cast, Bates spins Matty into a walking-talking subversion of the 'invisibility' so many women say they feel as they age. Teaming up with Cloud Nine to secure the rights to 'Matlock,' showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman and her production company, Sutton Street, delivered a ratings juggernaut.
'Every bit of this show, I just can't believe it,' said Bates. 'I feel like this should have come earlier in my career. It's a total surprise to me that I would have this success right now, and we're all just going, 'Can you believe this?' The numbers are incredible.'
The smash-hit legal drama has appeal across demographics and continents. Bates says it's also the most publicity she's ever done. Much like Demi Moore's 2024 Oscar campaign for 'The Substance,' the pensive reexamination of sexism at the core of 'Matlock' continues to connect with fans. Per Bates, Urman came up with the idea while taking a walk to reflect on her own evollution as a woman in Hollywood. What had aging into her forties really meant for Urman? And what else might change in the showrunner's fifties, sixties, and beyond?
'I was extremely lucky they wanted Matty to be in her seventies, because they could have easily gone with the great-great granddaughter of Andy Griffith's Matlock,' said Bates. 'But Jennie really puts her soul into things. I've always felt that who you are as an artist has to be informed by who you are as a human being, and she's this stellar human being who has really put her heart inside this character.'
'Matlock' lets Bates repurpose erasure as a kind of narrative cloaking device. While Matty hunts for clues and argues cases, Bates covertly thumbs through the psychological layers of a woman on a well-meaning revenge mission. On TV shows, it's common for directors to set 'tone meetings' to decide the look, feel, and flavor for each episode. With 'Matlock,' Urman gave Bates a specific mood to hit in every scene. That's 'deeper than stage directions,' said Bates, who added, 'You don't want to play the character. You want to be the character so that you can play with the other actor.'
Bates combed through pages and pages of 'Matlock' to find what she calls 'essential storytelling architecture.' Trained in the Sanford Meisner method of acting — and not afraid to throw that terminology around! — Bates prepares solo by combining heavy line repetition with deep character work. (For annotations, shes uses the Scriptation app, but said her process used to involve stacks of paper, colored pens, and a three-hole-punch.) Devouring that same material in a group, Bates said, has produced a new technique.
As suggested by actor David Del Rio (aka first-year associate Billy Martinez), the main collaborative engine for 'Matlock' grew out of the spare time that gets wasted on some sets. After checking their marks and moving to allow the cameras to get in position, actors often go back to their trailers.
'With the Del Rio method, we take that time to go and all sit down in another room and say, 'OK, I don't understand this case,'' said Bates. ''What's happening here?' 'Can you explain that case to me?' 'What's going on with you and I here?' 'Where are we?' 'What's the tone of this?' That gives us a way to really be firm and understand what's happening in each scene.'
This isn't the first time Bates has leaned into the expertise and advice of other actors. One of the first big instances came with her bittersweet comedy performance in 'Fried Green Tomatoes' — a memory with lessons Bates says she recognizes now but that wishes she had learned then.
'I wish I had a chance to go back and redo Evelyn Couch,' she said.
Post-Oscars for 'Misery,' Bates was in Japan when she got the script from director John Avnet. 'I thought, 'Oh, this is fabulous! I want to do it,'' said Bates. 'But when I got back home, my head was spinning. He was asking me about wigs and costumes and this and that, and I thought, 'Holy crap.' I was used to doing theater where you have weeks to prepare.'
On set, 42-year-old Bates found herself overwhelmed by the frantic pace of shooting and said she was unsure how to bring the sympathetic role of Evelyn to life. That's when she went to talk to her senior co-star, the zesty Jessica Tandy, who at 74 was two years younger than Bates is now.
'I knocked on Jessica's trailer door and she said, 'Ah, you've come to see the Wise Woman,'' said Bates. Tandy pushed her junior castmate to refocus on her acting skills and told her to 'go do three plays on Broadway.' An accomplished stage performer, who had just left New York, Bates realized years later that Tandy was pushing her to embrace the same ethos titans like Hopkins are sharing with her now.
'The English actors and the British actors and the Australian actors make it look so easy. Even when they're young, they train in the theater,' said Bates. 'That rehearsal time has to be part of who you are as an actor, and I don't think I did it long enough in New York to have had that under my belt. At the time we did 'Fried Green Tomatoes,' I certainly was nowhere near the level of Jessica.'
Bates still loves that movie and says she'll end up watching scene after scene if she catches 'Fried Green Tomatoes' on TV. She's especially fond of the menopause moment, when Evelyn says, 'I'm too old to be young and I'm too young to be old.' And yet, looking back, the 'Matlock' star says she can't help but see the film as an uncracked case.
'I was always running to catch up, and I think it shows on screen,' said Bates, adding that she also wished she had done more to support Mary-Louise Parker and Mary Stuart Masterson on the press tour. Bates said they were frequently sidelined in coverage by the attention on her and Tandy — despite the two Oscar winners repeatedly insisting, 'It's their story.' Once again, Bates used the word 'effortless.'
These days, the ferociously kind talent is fast to compliment CBS, cast, and crew but continues to demand more from herself as an actor and public representative who is ready to fight for 'Matlock.'
'I kind of rake myself over the coals when I shouldn't, but I do feel a tremendous responsibility,' Bates said. 'Last season, I asked somebody, 'How long have you been doing this?' And one guy would say, 'Oh, I've been doing this for 35 years.' 'Oh, I've been doing this for 20 years.' You start adding that up, and there's hours and hours and hours of experience of all these people there.'
She continued, 'So, you respect that. You respect each human being and what they bring to the table. That's what I walk onto set with — the respect for the experience that everybody has brought to create this show. It truly fills me with joy to be around such people.'
Happy to discuss cliffhangers but overjoyed to pick apart character choices, Bates said 'Matlock' still feels 'like serendipity.' It's also become her second home in Hollywood — the first Bates says she's had since falling for Rob Reiner's team on 'Misery.' The actor lives near the CBS backlot in Los Angeles, where Matty Matlock will spend Season 2 living in a studio version of New York, while Bates continues to embrace real wisdom.
'You've got to know your stuff so you can make it look easy,' she said. 'Then, you can fly.'
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