Stop the presses: Kathy Bates isn’t ready to retire after “Matlock” like we thought.
She was “one foot out the door” in her acting career until she read showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman's script for the reboot of the Andy Griffith drama, Bates told ABC's George Pennacchio during a red carpet interview Sunday at the 76th Emmy Awards.
Bates said the rumor about her retirement was “kind of a misunderstanding” after referring to “Matlock” as her “last dance” in an interview with the New York Times last week.
“I was very flattered that everyone was upset,” the “Misery” star told “ET” at the Emmys.
Bates will play gender-reversed protagonist Madeline Matlock in the new series, a lawyer who returns to work at a law firm using “her unassuming demeanor and cunning tactics to win cases and expose corruption from within,” the show's synopsis reads.
Her co-star Skye P. Marshall said in the same “ET” interview that she would “drag [Bates] “She ran out of her house kicking and screaming and asked if she thinks America, or the world, is going to let her retire after ‘Matlock.’”
Bates, 76, began acting in 1970 and has been nominated for a Tony, four Oscars and 14 Emmy Awards. She won an Academy Award for best lead actress for her portrayal of Annie Wilkes in the 1990 thriller “Misery,” and other roles earned her two Primetime Emmy Awards, two Golden Globes and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.
“Matlock” premieres September 22 on CBS.
