Let this be warning to all you Matlock fans who post comments about the CBS legal drama series on Reddit.
The show’s star, Kathy Bates, revealed she actually scrolls through the social media platform for fan reactions during an appearance at Deadline’s Contenders TV event.
‘There was a comment on the Reddit board about last week’s episode,’ the Academy award-winning actress, 76, said on the subject, which garnered gasps from some audience members.
‘I’m not allowed to read Instagram or Reddit because I could see a gazillion wonderful things, then I’ll see one negative thing, and that’s what I’ll pick up on. Although I hear that it’s very human, so it makes me feel better.’
The legal drama’s leading lady attended the panel with Jennie Snyder Urman, who developed Matlock and also serves a showrunner and executive producer.
While referencing Snyder Urman, Bates commented that ‘she read about a woman who was on a jury, and last week’s episode had to do with the woman who had been on a jury and who was bullied so much that she ended up caving when the man really was innocent and had been in prison for 21 years.’
Matlock star Kathy Bates, 76, revealed she actually scrolls through Reddit for fan reactions of the show during an appearance at Deadline’s Contenders TV event.
The Oscar-winning actress read a comment on the Reddit board about last week’s episode of Matlock, for which she plays the title role
She added, ‘This woman on the Reddit board said it really hit her hard because she had the same experience of being on a jury like that. So as a result of that, when she goes in to be called for jury duty, she explains this, and they don’t take her.’
Along with divulging her social media habits, Bates also announced she will be directing an episode of Matlock in the second season.
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‘I’m very excited,’ she confessed while thinking ahead to having to serve double duty.
That will be the first time she will be at the helm since directing a season three episode of the HBO hit drama Six Feet Under some 22 years ago.
Bates and Snyder Urman would also heap the praise of co-star Skye P. Marshall, who plays the role of Olympia Lawrence, for her acting skills and subsequent success with Matlock.
‘I just love her,’ Bates gushed, before revealing, ‘We had chemistry read with about four actresses [for the Olympia role], and when she came in, she was just larger than life and gorgeous, and just very open and eager and of course, just brilliantly talented.’
The Memphis, Tennessee native continued, ‘I wish she were here because she’s had a long road to this magnificent explosion now with Matlock. It’s been so wonderful to see all of that happening for her.’
The show draws from the original Matlock TV series that starred Andy Griffith, but with a gender flipped lead character played by Bates and a far different premise.
Her character, lawyer Madeline ‘Matty’ Kingston, comes out of retirement to seek justice for the death of her daughter Ellie in the opioid epidemic.
Kingston ultimately gets a job using the alias of needy widow Matty Matlock, at the law firm she believes hid evidence that could have saved her daughter’s life.
Matlock, which also stars Jason Ritter, David Del Rio, and Leah Lewis, premiered on CBS on September 22, 2024, and then was greenlit for that second season in October.
The legal drama’s leading lady attended the panel with Jennie Snyder Urman, who developed Matlock and also serves a showrunner and executive producer
Bates and Snyder Urman would also heap the praise of co-star Skye P. Marshall, who plays the role of Olympia Lawrence, for her acting skills and subsequent success with Matlock
Bates had her breakthrough film role in the the psychological thriller, Misery (1990), co-starring James Cann, which earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress
Most recently, episode 16 aired on Thursday, April 3, leaving just three more episodes to air over the course of the next two weeks.
After making her professional acting debut in Taking Off (1971), it would be another 20 years until Bates’ Hollywood breakthrough performance in Misery (1990), which was based on the book of the same name by Stephen King.
Co-starring James Caan in the other lead role, the actress ended up earning the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role as Annie Wilkes in the psychological thriller.
Bates’ other three Oscar-nominated roles were in the comedy-dramas Primary Colors (1998) and About Schmidt (2002), as well as the biographical drama Richard Jewell (2019).
Some of her other notable films include Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), Dolores Claiborne (1995), Titanic, (1997), The Waterboy (1998), Revolutionary Road (2008), The Blind Side (2009), Midnight in Paris (2011), and Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret (2023), among others.
Bates is also known for her extensive work on television in such series as The Late Shift (1996), Annie (1999), Six Feet Under (2003), Warm Springs (2005), Harry’s Law (2011–2012), Two And A Half Men (2012), American Horror Story: Coven (2013), American Horror Story: Freak Show (2014), and American Horror Story: Hotel (2015).