Matlock star Kathy Bates announces retirement two weeks before show’s release

‘It’s exhausting’ said the Oscar and Emmy-winning actor

Kathy Bates has announced her retirement, two weeks before her new show, Matlock, is to be released.

Bates, 76, stars as “brilliant septuagenarian” lawyer Madeline “Matty” Matlock, in the reboot of the Eighties and Nineties original, which starred Andy Griffith.

Created by Charmed producer Jennie Snyder Urman, the show also stars Jason Ritter, Skye P Marshall, David Del Rio, and Leah Lewis.

The Academy Award-winning star of 1990 film Misery, told The New York Times she had planned to quit the industry after an aborted movie – that she refuses to name – left her sobbing on her sofa.

“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 new show. “And it’s exhausting. This is my last dance.”

Bates described her career as: “Pain, pain, pain, pain, pain,” but added, “Do I have the right to feel this pain? When I was given so much?”

Her performances in American Horror Story and Two and a Half Men, earned her two Primetime Emmy Awards. Playing nurse Annie Wilkes in Misery won her a Golden Globe award as well as the Oscar for Best Actress, and she won a second Golden Globe for playing Jay Leno’s manager Helen Kushnick in The Late Shift.

“I never really thought about being a movie star,” she said as she revealed she felt unwanted growing up. “I just wanted to be the best I could be.”

Bates stars as lawyer Matty Matlock (CBS/Matlock)

But, her experience in the industry was not a smooth one, as she admitted feeling like a misfit throughout her career.

“I never felt dressed right or well,” she said of her publicity for Misery. “I felt like a misfit. It’s that line in Misery when Annie says, ‘I’m not a movie star.’ I’m not.”

However, she added that acting “was the only thing I’ve had, ever.”

In a trailer for the forthcoming series, Bates’ character Matty says, “There’s this funny thing that happens when women age. We become damn near invisible. It’s useful, because nobody sees us coming.”

“Maybe on some deep level that’s why I was attracted to this,” she said, as she admitted to feeling the same need as her character to rectify the wrongs of the past.

Matlock premieres on CBS on 22 September 22