Oscar winner Kathy Bates is set to retire from acting — after one last role.
The actress, 76, told The New York Times in an interview published on Sunday, September 8, that her upcoming starring role in CBS’ Matlock reboot will be the last of her career.
“This is my last dance,” Bates told the outlet.
According to the Times, the actress considered retiring before accepting Matlock after a movie shoot “soured” her on acting. In fact, she called her agents and told them she wanted to retire. However, in January, they sent her the script for Matlock, which resonated with Bates.
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“Everything I’ve prayed for, worked for, clawed my way up for, I am suddenly able to be asked to use all of it,” she said of her upcoming television series. “And it’s exhausting.”
Bates won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role as Annie Wilkes in 1990’s Misery. She also has two Emmy awards for her guest-starring role in Two and a Half Men and a supporting actress role in American Horror Story: Coven.
Throughout her career, Bates has also had notable roles in Titanic, Primary Colors, About Schmidt, Richard Jewell and Revolutionary Road. She most recently starred in Are You There God, It’s Me, Margaret?
“It becomes my life,” she said of acting. “Sometimes I get jealous of having this talent. Because I can’t hold it back, and I just want my life.”
Despite her numerous accolades, Bates admitted that she didn’t necessarily feel like she fit into Hollywood when she won the 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 explained.
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Before she rides into the sunset, Bates will star in Matlock, a gender-swapped reboot of the original 1986 series starring Andy Griffith. Bates stars as Madeline Matlock, a septuagenarian lawyer who uses her decades of life and work experience, and unassuming nature, to win cases.
The series is executive produced by Jennie Snyder Urman and costars Skye P. Marshall, Jason Ritter, David Del Rio and Leah Lewis.
Matlock premieres Sunday, September 22 on CBS.
