Kathy Bates Says She Will Retire After ‘Matlock’ Reboot

After five legendary decades, Kathy Bates is saying goodbye to Hollywood once and for all.

The Memphis native recently confirmed to The New York Times that CBS’ upcoming reboot of Matlock will be her final acting gig. 

“This is my last dance,” Bates, 76, told the Times.

Retirement has been on her mind for some time now. In fact, the Oscar winner was dead set on quitting acting when the opportunity to reboot a classic Andy Griffith character came knocking a few years ago. Bates was so intrigued by the premise of a septuagenarian righting wrongs, that she paused her retirement to play the role of wily lawyer Madeline Matlock in the CBS procedural.

But 50 years of putting her heart and soul into every project has caught up to her. 

“It becomes my life,” Bates told the newspaper. “Sometimes I get jealous of having this talent. Because I can’t hold it back, and I just want my life.”  

“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 continued. “And it’s exhausting.”

Bates said she’s pouring all she has left into Matlock, perhaps because she feels drawn to her character’s determination to right past wrongs.

“When she gets a script and she reads through it, you will see her challenge the directors, challenge the writers in a very healthy way,” her co-star, Skye P. Marshall, told the Times. “She is an all-around beautiful warrior who is so intuitive, so intelligent, and unwilling to tolerate any injustice for anyone.”

Matlock premieres on CBS September 22.