Kathy Bates on Working After Making Healthier Lifestyle Changes

The Oscar-winning actress lost 100 pounds over the last seven years and said that helped made working ‘a lot easier.’

Kathy Bates arrives for the 76th Emmy Awards Los Angeles on Sept. 15, 2024. Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images

Academy Award-winning actress Kathy Bates is proud of her years of hard work, but more importantly, the changes she’s made behind the scenes that helped her career overall.

Speaking to People magazine on March 23 at the Paleyfest screening of “Matlock” in Hollywood, the 76-year-old reflected on her 100-pound weight loss and how living a healthier lifestyle has made “working a lot easier.”

Bates said she never anticipated feeling this way at this point in her career. She reflected on her time filming the 2011 drama series “Harry’s Law” on NBC.

“When I was so heavy in Harry’s Law, I had to sit down in between every take, and it was awful,” she said. “I’m ashamed to have put myself through that, to be honest.”

“But now that I’ve been able to get really healthy, I can move, I can breathe, I can have fun, I’m not sore,” she continued.

“I get tired and realize I’m like an old lady, but even the kids get tired. But it’s been a magnificent experience.”

Over the last seven years, Bates lost 80 pounds strictly with diet and exercise following a type 2 diabetes diagnosis in 2017, before shedding another 20 pounds with the help of Ozempic.

Also known as semaglutide—the active ingredient in the drug—it is used to treat type 2 diabetes in adults that is not satisfactorily controlled.

However, in recent years, the medication has increased in popularity for treating obesity or helping patients lose weight.

Bates, who portrays attorney Madeline “Matty” Matlock in CBS’s reboot drama series “Matlock,” told the outlet last year that weight loss gave her the physical stamina needed to keep up with the demanding role.

“Physically, I’m capable of doing this show,” she said. “I don’t have to sit down. I can stand up all day long and walk and move and breathe and do so many things that I couldn’t before.”

Her decision to go on Ozempic led to speculation that the drug was the only reason Bates was able to lose the weight. She said that she didn’t take the easy way out.

“There’s been a lot of talk that I just was able to do this because of Ozempic,” she said at the time.

“But I have to impress upon people out there that this was hard work for me, especially during the pandemic. It’s very hard to say you’ve had enough.”

With over 130 credits in film and television, Bates is best known for her roles in “Titanic” (1997), “Misery” (1990), and “Dolores Claiborne” (1995).

The actress has 40 award-winning nods and more than 100 nominations in total. At the 2025 Critics’ Choice Awards last month, Bates took home the trophy for best actress in a drama series for “Matlock.”