Kathy Bates has revealed that her mother wasn’t impressed with her daughter’s 1991 Oscar win for her performance in Stephen King’s “Misery.”
During an interview with “CBS Sunday Morning,” which aired on Monday, Bates recalled her mother’s response when she received the Academy Award.
“When I won the Oscar for ‘Misery,’ she said, ‘I don’t know what all the excitement about, you didn’t discover the cure for cancer,’” the actress told host Ben Mankiewicz.
When reflecting on her speech during the 63rd Academy Awards ceremony, Bates was certain she forgot to thank her mother until Mankiewicz showed her a video revealing she had remembered after all.
Thirty-three years later, during the “CBS Sunday Morning” interview, the actress covered her mouth in disbelief and teared up as she watched herself say those words.
“Thank you,” Bates, visibly choked up, told Mankiewicz. “Why did I think I didn’t thank her? Oh, what a relief.”
When asked why that moment had such an impact on her, Bates said that her mother “should have had my life.”
“When she died, I said, ‘Come into me,’” the “Matlock” star said. “Even though we had so many difficulties, I wanted her spirit to come into me and enjoy everything I was enjoying because of what she had given up.”
Early in the interview, Bates shared that her parents put off retirement to pay her college tuition at Southern Methodist University and support her dreams of becoming an actress.
“My father literally had a heart attack after two or three years of giving up,” she recalled. “He had to spend a fortune, we didn’t have to send me to Southern Methodist University, and went to work when he was in his 70s. They gave up so much.”
Weight Loss
Toward the end of the interview, Bates opened up about her multi-year-long journey to losing 100 pounds.“It’s only recently that I’ve solved that problem in my life and shed a hundred pounds, and it’s taken years to do it. And I did it with mindfulness on my own and with determination,” she said. “I was able to go to Armani and buy a gorgeous dress for the Emmys and walk out in a size 10.
“So I’m just luxuriating in all of those moments,” she said.
“I had to sit down every moment that I could. It was hard for me to walk,“ she said. ”I’m ashamed I let myself get so out of shape, but now I have a tremendous amount of energy.”
A two-time cancer survivor, Bates also has shared how her weight loss helped ease her symptoms of lymphedema.
Retirement Plans
In September, Bates shared her plans to retire following her new show “Matlock,” announcing that the project would be her “last dance.”“Everything I’ve prayed for, worked for, clawed my way up for, I am suddenly able to be asked to use all of it,” she said in an interview with The New York Times. “And it’s exhausting.”
However, during an interview with People and Entertainment Weekly at the 2024 Emmy Awards, Bates clarified that she “only had one foot out of the door” of her acting career.
“What I meant was I had one foot out the door until I read the script for ‘Matlock,’” she said. “And then I read some ‘Matlock’ and I went, ‘Okay, close the door we are going to do some more!’ I want it to run for years, it’s that great.”
