Matlock’s Skye P. Marshall Previews ‘Magical’ Flashbacks, Mulls Olympia’s Eventual Reaction to Matty’s Secret
CBS’ Matlock does a tiny time warp this Thursday at 9/8c, with an episode that toggles between the present day and two years ago — specifically, to the case that both sparked Olympia’s professional mission and sealed the fate of her and Julian’s marriage.
TVLine spoke with the already-renewed freshman hit’s co-lead, Skye P. Marshall, about serving up this blast from Olympia’s past, and the very emotional scene she shares with Kathy Bates.
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TVLINE | First off, congratulations on the early Season 2 renewal.
My goodness, isn’t that wild, after two episodes? I definitely thought we weren’t going to find out until, like, January, or April, when they usually decide what they drop and what they pick up.
TVLINE | You filmed this pilot way back in spring of ’23. What was it like for you to sit on this show for over a year and then see this incredibly positive reaction to it?
You know, I’ll be honest — I wasn’t marveled by the reaction to it because I created it with some amazing artists and a phenomenal creative team, our producers and our writers and our directors. [Showrunner] Jennie Snyder Urman summoned some really powerful, radical artists, and when we hit the ground running from the moment we started with the pilot, it was love at first sight.
Kathy Bates did chemistry read auditions with multiple Olympias when she chose me. And then I did chemistry read auditions with multiple Julians before I chose Jason Ritter, and David [Del Rio, who plays Billy] did the same for Sarahs before he chose Leah Lewis. It was very intentional, making sure that every actor felt a chemical bond to their costar that they would be spending the most scenes with, and that’s the magic that everyone has seen on the screen. It wasn’t just a bunch of decision-makers choosing who had “the most followers” or the biggest resumé or the biggest story, because nobody knew who Skye P. Marshall was; I had to sneak my name through.
TVLINE | I have had actors confide in me that they stress about social media followers, because that’s now factoring into casting decisions, which is crazy.
It is crazy, but our creative team, our producers, and our showrunner, they didn’t want to go in that direction. They just wanted to look for raw talent. Kathy Bates, someone who was chosen for Misery and won an Oscar over a bunch of big names, understands that deeply, so, she, too, has a soft spot for the underdogs, for the actors who’ve been working their butts off but just need that one shot. David Del Rio comes from Broadway. I’ve been in this industry for, I think, 14 years — and they say “it takes 10 years to be an overnight success.” Leah Lewis was just at the Oscars for Elemental. But we weren’t household names. But we had the talent, and we had the gumption, and we fought for it and won, and that is the magic that everyone sees.
TVLINE | What sets this week’s episode, “Sixteen Steps,” apart from the ones we’ve seen so far?
Oh, this is a really magical episode. In the pilot, everyone is kind of thrown into the midst of this divorce between my character, Olympia Lawrence, and Jason Ritter’s character, Julian. So everyone’s curious: What happened? How did they get here? They seem to be getting along, why don’t they just end this divorce? Look how beautiful their family is! What happened, and who did it, and why? And that’s what’s going to come out in Episode 6. Not all of the juicy details as to what happened and why — that’ll come out in Episode 7 — but we get the beginning of the backstory that leads to Olympia and Julian in need of a divorce, and the legal case that really put the cherry on top of the cake of their division.
TVLINE | We get flashbacks to two years ago. How would you say Olympia was different then?
Well, her hair was fabulous.
TVLINE | Oh my God, it’s a freakin’ mane.
Oh, my goodness, the hair is fabulous. I was so happy about that, But in all seriousness, you see how Olympia had this vision, and she was done with corporate litigation. She was done with big pharma. She wanted to do something extraordinary by representing very specific demographics of people who cannot afford her, but need her skillset, and then she can make it rain by getting a huge payout through the litigation, a class action lawsuit.
But how do you do that and keep your job at one of the most prestigious law firms in New York City? This goal of hers, you see it get ignited from the case that happened two years prior to today, and now, when you watch Episodes 1 through 5 — and the rest of the season, really — pay attention to these clients that she has. It’s very intentional, right? In the pilot, she says to Madeline Matlock that she charges $1,000 an hour, time that she cannot afford. In Episode 5, Katya at the nail salon, who’s an addict? She can’t afford Olympia Lawrence. The artist with the resin whose wife died because of the legionella in the building? He can’t afford her. When you start to look at the pattern of clients, that’s intentional. How did she come up with that plan? That is what comes out of Episode 6.
TVLINE | Without spoiling too much about the subject matter, talk about having, in this week’s episode, a scene in which your and Kathy’s characters are the most emotionally available to each other — because it’s a really wonderful scene.
Going into that scene, as an actor, I was nervous, and one thing I love so much about Kathy Bates is she loves to rehearse. The complexity around rehearsing such an emotional scene is you don’t want to release it sooner than you need to. You need the camera to be rolling, because when you’re allowing yourself to be so vulnerable and raw, it needs to be captured, because you don’t know if it’s going to come out the way that you just experienced, because you have no idea what Kathy Bates is going to throw at you. So when I went into the rehearsal, I was very stoic. I just wanted to make sure that the two of us knew our lines and that we knew where we were working towards, and I barely made eye contact with her, because it is a very sensitive subject. It’s about motherhood and what mothers would do for their children.
And when you think about what you’ve seen thus far in Matlock, I think everybody who has watched the news, read the numbers about the opioid epidemic, has thought, “What would happen if one parent did something about it,” actually infiltrated the system to figure out who’s responsible for this mess? Or one sister, one brother, one child for their parent. What would happen if they actually had a plan to infiltrate a system, to figure out who’s responsible? The audience knows that that is Madeline Matlock’s mission. I don’t know, but what I do see in front of me is a woman over the age of 75 caring for her grandson. And here I am, Olympia Lawrence, trying to balance personal life and professional life with a man that I no longer can be married to, while trying to raise two kids and also trying to support the community and the culture. But how do you balance that? We explore Olympia’s fear of ever losing one of her children while watching Madeline process this grief that she will not and cannot ever heal from, because what parent can?
TVLINE | How do you think Olympia will, ultimately, react to the truth about Madeline Kingston is and what she’s up to?
How would she react? I think it is going to be Jekyll and Hyde. I think that she will try her best to understand, because of their relationship. And she will probably be extremely heartbroken, because of their relationship.
Want scoop on Matlock, or for any other TV show? Shoot an email to [email protected], and your question may be answered via Matt’s Inside Line!
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