Kathy Bates, 76, to retire from Hollywood after ‘Matlock’ reboot: ‘This is my last dance’

Kathy Bates is ready to bid farewell to Hollywood. The 76-year-old actress announced her latest project, a reboot of the series Matlock, would be her “last dance.”

She reportedly made the decision last year after a film she was working on left her in tears.

Late last year, Bates reached a point where an unnamed movie left her in tears on her couch. After more than 50 years in the business, she had enough.

“It becomes my life,” she told the New York Times in a new interview. “Sometimes I get jealous of having this talent. Because I can’t hold it back, and I just want my life.”

The actress, who won an Oscar for her role in Misery and Emmys for her roles in American Horror Story and Two and a Half Men, contacted her agent the next day and let them know she was ready to retire.

In January 2024, her agent sent her the script for a procedural. It was for a reboot of a series she was never particularly fond of, but she as she read the script she saw herself in main character.

The Harry’s Law actress couldn’t say no to the project.

“I just feel really lucky,” she told Entertainment Weekly of Matlock. “I get to play all of those levels with everything I’ve learned in the last 50 years… I love playing all those facets of this character, and I just feel so lucky to be able to do all of that in one person and in the same episode. I love being able to play all those different notes.”

“This is my last dance.”

Congratulations, Kathy Bates on a well-deserved retirement! You have provided your fans with five decades of entertainment, now it’s time for you to enjoy the rest of your life.

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