Kathy Bates Says She’ll Retire from Acting After ‘Matlock’

Career, closed.

Actress Kathy Bates says she will retire from acting at the conclusion of her CBS legal procedural, “Matlock,” a reboot of the 1986-1995 courtroom drama series staring Andy Griffith in the title role.

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“This is my last dance,” the Oscar and Emmy-winning star, age 76, told the New York Times.

Now Bates is the eponymous attorney in the modern-day gender-swapped show. “Matlock” has not even launched yet — it is set to debut on CBS on September 22 and will follow on streamer Paramount+.

Bates recently appeared in films “The Great Lillian Hall,” “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret,” and “A Family Affair.”

“Everything I’ve prayed for, worked for, clawed my way up for, I am suddenly able to be asked to use all of it,” Bates said of working on “Matlock” at this point in her career. “And it’s exhausting.”

She added of her 50-plus years of stardom, “I never really thought about being a movie star. I just wanted to be the best I could be. […] It becomes my life. Sometimes I get jealous of having this talent. Because I can’t hold it back, and I just want my life.”

Bates won the Academy Award for 1990’s “Misery.” She later took home Emmys for “American Horror Story” and “Two and a Half Men.”

Bates’ TV résumé includes appearances on “Six Feet Under,” “The Office,” and “Disjointed.” Iconic films starring Bates range from “Fried Green Tomatoes” to “Titanic” and “Richard Jewell.”

Bates told Entertainment Weekly that “Matlock” encompasses all facets of acting, and is “like nothing I’ve ever experienced” across her career.

“I really did a lot of digging deep in my own personal life, my own background, my own growing up, and all of the experiences that I’ve had personally, but also all of the things I’ve learned about the craft for the last 50 years,” Bates said. “That’s another joy that’s been part of this, is that I’m able to use everything that I was taught and I’ve taught myself. And I’m able to do the whole spectrum of things that I love to do as an actor in one character. So in preparing, I dug a lot. I went down into the basement of my own insecurities and failures and regrets to understand what [my character] Madeline [Matlock] feels. The thing I keep going back to is the regrets.”

She added, “After I’ve done the inside work, then the scenes happen to me, and that’s the way it’s supposed to be. I mean, it is hard work. I’m lucky that physically I’m in shape. I’m in the best shape I’ve ever been in my life. I’ve lost about a hundred pounds over the last few years. I’m moving and breathing and on my feet all day and walking about three miles a day working, so I’m in fantastic shape. I feel good. I feel strong. I don’t think I could have done this if that weren’t the case.”

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