Kathy Bates Says ‘Matlock’ Is Her ‘Last Dance’, Retiring After It Ends

Kathy Bates is ready to walk away from Hollywood after five decades and countless accolades. The Oscar and Emmy Award-winning actress, 76, revealed in a new interview with The New York Times published Sunday that she’s ready to retire from the world of acting following her role in CBS’ reboot of Matlock, premiering Sept. 22.

“This is my last dance,” she told the Times simply. The beloved actress revealed that she had actually attempted to retire before accepting the role on Matlock after a movie shoot “soured” her on acting. Bates went as far as to call her agents to tell them she would be ending her career, but in January, they sent her the script for Matlock, which Bates said resonated with her.  

“Everything I’ve prayed for, worked for, clawed my way up for, I am suddenly able to be asked to use all of it,” the star said of her upcoming role in the gender-swapped reboot of the original 1986 series starring Andy Griffith. “And it’s exhausting.” Bates continued of acting, “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 Best Actress for her role as crazed and violent superfan Annie Wilkes in the 1990 film Misery. She’s also taken home two Emmy Awards for her guest-starring role on Two and a Half Men and as well as a supporting actress role in American Horror Story: Coven.

Bates has also had notable roles in films like Titanic, Primary Colors, Richard Jewell, and Revolutionary Road, most recently appearing in Are You There God, It’s Me, Margaret? and Netflix’s A Family Affair opposite Nicole Kidman. Despite her success in the entertainment industry, Bates explained she never felt like she fit into Hollywood when she first won her Oscar for Misery.

“I never felt dressed right or well. I felt like a misfit. It’s that line in Misery when Annie says, ‘I’m not a movie star.’ I’m not,’” she told the Times.

Bates will star in Matlock as Madeline Matlock, a brilliant septuagenarian attorney who rejoins the workforce at a prestigious law firm where she uses her unassuming demeanor and wily tactics to win cases and expose corruption from within. The series is executive produced by Jennie Snyder Urman and co-stars Skye P. Marshall, Jason Ritter, David Del Rio, and Leah Lewis.

Matlock premieres Sunday, September 22 on CBS.