‘It’s exhausting – this is my last dance’
Legendary actor Kathy Bates has announced her retirement, just two weeks before her new show is due to be released.
Bates, best known for her Oscar-winning role as Annie Wilkes in ‘Misery,’ stars in new CBS series Matlock, which is about “brilliant septuagenarian” lawyer Madeline “Matty” Matlock.
The cast for the show also includes Jason Ritter, Skye P Marshall, David Del Rio, and Leah Lewis.
But in an interview with the New York Times, Bates said she would be retiring from acting following the show’s release.
The 76-year-old explained she made the decision after an aborted movie left her crying on the sofa.
She told the publication: “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. This is my last dance.”
Bates said her career has been “pain, pain, pain, pain, pain,” but added: “Do I have the right to feel this pain? When I was given so much?”
Along with her film appearances, Bates has also received Emmy Awards for her roles in American Horror Story and Two and a Half Men.
Despite the critical acclaim she’s received throughout her career, Bates revealed she has often felt like a misfit.
Recalling when she was doing publicity for Misery, which was released in 1990, she said: ““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.”
Matlock premieres on September 22 on CBS.
