Kathy Bates on Updating Matlock With a Twist

Kathy Bates plays the sweet, helpless old lady so well.

And in the upcoming Matlock, so does her character. Madeline "Matty" Matlock, a lawyer returning to the workforce, is neither sweet nor helpless. Some dismiss her because of age or treat her as if she's invisible, but Matty uses their oversights to her advantage.

"Nobody sees us coming," she says in the first episode, which premiered September 22 on CBS. Bates gets that. Even Hollywood tourists hunting for celebrities look past her. "They have these expanded golf carts that go around the Paramount lot, giving tours of all the different soundstages," Bates says over Zoom from her Hollywood home. "A few months ago, well, I hoped that they saw me, but they didn't see me waving. And then I thought, 'Because I have gray hair, it's like I'm invisible.'"

She says it without any wistfulness. After a long career that includes an Oscar (Misery) and two Emmys (guest actress in a comedy series for Two and a Half Men and supporting actress in a miniseries or movie for American Horror Story: Coven), Bates relishes where she is.

"How often does a 75-year-old woman get to be the head of a series?" she asks. "And in such a wonderful role?"

Matty is more than people assume, and Matlock is more than a gender-flipped reboot of the Andy Griffith procedural (1986–95). A twist revealed in the pilot explains Matty's motivation, set up to propel the plot through the 18-episode season. Determined to keep the secret, Bates hasn't even confided in friends about her character.

The gumbo of a Southern accent she uses in Matlock came easily to the actress, who was raised in Memphis and educated in Texas. After college, Bates headed to New York and worked on Broadway. Before taking this series, she was considering moving back there and retiring in Manhattan ... or France.

"It's come along at just the right time," she says.

Having successfully battled cancer twice, Bates is grateful for the opportunity to take on another series and pleased with the state of her health now. (For a decade, she's been the national spokesperson for the Lymphatic Education & Research Network.) She cheerfully shares how hard she worked to lose 100 pounds.

Should Matlock last seasons, Bates is ready. "I just want to keep on doing this," she says. "It makes me so happy."