Kathy Bates will retire from acting after her stint on CBS’ Matlock reboot comes to an end: ‘It’s my last dance’

After an iconic career spanning five decades, Kathy Bates revealed she’s ready to retire, after her new CBS series Matlock runs its course.

The 76-year-old actor plays Madeline Matlock in a gender-flipped reboot of the original Matlock series that ran from 1986 to 1995 starring Andy Griffith.

The actress has earned an Oscar, two Primetime Emmys and two Golden Globes throughout her storied career.

During a new wide-ranging interview with The New York Times, Bates revealed she’s ready to call it a career… which she was actually planning before Matlock came around.

She revealed that a recent movie shoot last year (she won’t identify which movie) had caused her to seriously consider retiring… before the Matlock script came her way.

The 76-year-old actor plays Madeline Matlock in a gender-flipped reboot of the original Matlock series that ran from 1986 to 1995 starring Andy Griffith

‘It becomes my life. Sometimes I get jealous of having this talent. Because I can’t hold it back, and I just want my life,’ she said.

Weeks after telling her agents she wants to retire, they sent her the Matlock pilot script, and she found herself surprisingly connecting with the character, Madeline Matlock.

She said that the injustices she faced early on in her career mirror the plight of her title character.

‘Everything I’ve prayed for, worked for, clawed my way up for, I am suddenly able to be asked to use all of it. And it’s exhausting,’ she said.

‘This is my last dance,’ Bates insists about her retirement after Matlock, which got an 18-episode order from CBS ahead of its September 22 premiere.

Bates added that she connected to the character because they both use their work as a conduit for their grief.

‘Maybe on some deep level that’s why I was attracted to this,’ Bates admitted in the interview.

Her co-star Skye P. Marshall, who plays another lawyer in the show, had nothing but praise for her work ethic.

‘It becomes my life. Sometimes I get jealous of having this talent. Because I can’t hold it back, and I just want my life,’ she said

Weeks after telling her agents she wants to retire, they sent her the Matlock pilot script, and she found herself surprisingly connecting with the character, Madeline Matlock

‘When she gets a script and she reads through it, you will see her challenge the directors, challenge the writers in a very healthy way,” Marshall said

Though the actress didn’t exactly see herself that way, with the interviewer mentioning she began to cry towards the end of the interview

‘When she gets a script and she reads through it, you will see her challenge the directors, challenge the writers in a very healthy way,” Marshall said. 

‘She is an all-around beautiful warrior who is so intuitive, so intelligent and unwilling to tolerate any injustice for anyone,’ she added.

Though the actress didn’t exactly see herself that way, with the interviewer mentioning she began to cry towards the end of the interview.

‘I have no right. I see the state of the world, and here I am sitting in a posh restaurant in a posh town with a posh career, going home to a posh house, and what right do I have to cry?’ Bates said.

Matlock debuts September 22 on CBS from showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman, which will later stream on Paramount Plus.