Crafty seventy-something attorney Madeline “Matty” Matlock (Academy Award winner Kathy Bates) has an ulterior motive for bulldozing her way into a job at an esteemed Chicago law firm in this reimagining of legal drama Matlock (CBS, 1986-95). You’ll think you know her motivation by the end of the first hour, but Bates promises the twists keep coming until the final episode of the new Matlock.
“Matlock has an agenda that not everyone knows about. I love playing all those different notes,” says the actress, who is famous for inhabiting characters that make us squirm (like her Oscar-winning breakthrough role as a deranged fan in Misery and her Emmy-scoring turn as a sadistic socialite in American Horror Story, among others).
This time around, In the hands of executive producer Jennie Snyder Urman, creator of Jane the Virgin. Bates is someone more normal. We think. “I wanted to write about how older women are overlooked in society,” Urman says. “I wanted our heroine to be constantly telling the audience that she’s being underestimated, for the audience to enjoy watching her take advantage of that underestimation. And then, by the end, shock the audience when they realize they, too, have underestimated Madeline Matlock.”
This Matty is no blood relation to the original Ben Matlock, a folksy, curmudgeonly lawyer played by Andy Griffith. Part of this show’s humor is that the vintage television series exists, but Matty’s only connection to it is the coincidence of her last name. Broadcast TV barely registers for Matty’s busy boss, senior attorney Olympia (Skye P. Marshall), who loves a good pro bono case. Her ex-husband Julian (Jason Ritter), son of the firm’s head honcho, is intrigued by the smart grandma working alongside the young associates, including charismatic Billy (David Del Rio) and go-getter Sarah (Leah Lewis). (Click on the video to see our interview with Bates and the cast.)
What Matty does share with Griffith’s attorney is she doggedly investigates each case of the week like it’s the crime of the century. And she can play sweet old codger while slyly figuring out her next move. But what’s she hiding? TV Insider put Bates on the witness stand to find out.
Is it tough to play Matty’s many truths?
Kathy Bates: One minute she’s at the office trying to figure things out, the other she’s with her husband at home and there are very tender moments. All those layers, I love. My mother, God rest her, always wished that I’d not play all these characters that were “afflicted.” She’d be very happy because A), she wanted to be a lawyer, and B), I’m not afflicted.
What’s Matty really after?
I can’t give everything away, but she is on a mission. The law firm is not allowed to discriminate against her age. She uses this to get into the front door and ostensibly to create a whole new life for herself. She even keeps things from her husband, every now and then. At the very end, just when you think Matlock has only fooled the people in her life, you realize she’s also fooled the audience.
CBS
Did you watch the original Matlock?
I didn’t watch the original at that time. I was performing in New York on stage. We worked when people played. That was the deal. I did watch a couple of episodes and I also certainly knew Andy Griffith.
Did you see a role like this coming at the age of 75?
This really is a pinnacle for me. And to have this at the end of my career is an incredible gift. I never dreamed I would have a third act like this. I’ve never thought at my age I’d be playing such a wonderful role and for network, which so many people are going to see. And to play such a complex character, a woman who seems forgotten and invisible but isn’t, and uses what’s considered a liability [her age] to her advantage and to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes. She uses her lifetime of experience and wisdom to really connect with people, instead of Googling everything, and that helps her solve cases. She doesn’t live her life through a screen. She lives it looking into people’s eyes and having real relationships.
Have you ever felt invisible?
I do now actually! They are often having these tours on the Paramount lot [where Matlock shoots] and I’m going by in my golf cart and they never recognize me. It’s this running joke from the first time I was there for the first episode. I’d ride by and they’d go right by me, and I thought, “What the hell? Don’t they know who I am?” [laughs] I would start by a little bit of a wave. Now I’m going like this [waves arms frantically] trying to get their attention [laughs]. Maybe [it’s] because I’ve gotten old or maybe because I’ve gotten thinner, I don’t know. I often say if I wasn’t well known, I’d be invisible.
But Matty becomes less invisible to her boss.
She so admires Olympia’s strength. They click. She begins to love that part of her life almost even more than she does [being at] home. We see a different side of Matty as their relationship develops. There’s a struggle between her relationship with her husband and this relationship at work. It’s so fun to play all those facets Matty’s learning about at the same time as they’re happening, [like] “Oh, my God, I didn’t know I could do this!”
How does Matty see her younger ageist coworkers?
She looks at them as not being very enlightened. They can go ahead and laugh as much as they want at her, but she knows her wisdom counts for a lot. [Entertainment] is certainly a business where a lot of ageism exists. I’ve only been interested in doing the best work I can possibly do. To be able to bring all I’ve learned from doing different roles into this, I’m glad I stuck around.
This series also deals with sexual harassment. Did you face that in Hollywood?
When I was coming along as a young woman in Hollywood in the Seventies, things were very different. I remember being at a sexual harassment teaching event with Joan Collins when she came to do American Horror Story. She looked over [at me] like, “Are you kidding me?” because we came along at such a different time. It’s beautifully dealt with [in Matlock]. In the third episode, Matty comes face to face with her own lack of education, lack of awareness that times have changed. She has a lot to learn from the younger people in the office.
How does Matty compare to the sarcastic lawyer you played on Harry’s Law for two seasons on NBC?
This is a much more complex character. I loved playing Harry and met some wonderful people. But this is different. I’m different. With Jennie, you text her and she texts right back. It’s incredibly collaborative, which wasn’t the style that [executive producer] David [E. Kelley] had back in those days. I don’t know if that’s changed. This is a very different experience to be able to say, “Hey, I need help with this.” She’s right there.
Is there a dream number of Matlock seasons you’d to do?
I’d say maybe five. We’ll see how long God gives me. I wish my mother was still alive to see it. She was born in 1907. I don’t even think she had her own bank account at one point. Women were expected to be secretaries and divorce was a no-no. It’s great that women are leaders of countries and in high places. I love seeing that reflected in a television series.
Matlock, series premiere, September 22, 8/7c, CBS
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