Kathy Bates announces upcoming series Matlock will be final acting assignment: 'This is my last dance'

Veteran star Kathy Bates is ready to hang her boots. The actress had plans to retire after a bad experience while shooting a movie but the new series Matlock came her way.Kathy Bates was ready to retire before starring in the new CBS series Matlock.

In an interview with the New York Times, the Oscar winner shared that after a movie shoot had “soured”, she was crying at home on her sofa before telling her agents the next day that she wanted to retire.

“It becomes my life,” the 76-year-old said of acting and work. “Sometimes I get jealous of having this talent. Because I can’t hold it back, and I just want my life.”

A few weeks after this incident, her agent sent her a script for the rebooted series Matlock, which originally ran from 1986 to 1995 and starred Andy Griffith as Benjamin Matlock. The rebooted series will chronicle Bates's character - attorney Madeline “Matty” Matlock, rejoining the law workforce as a senior and racking up courtroom wins.

“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. “And it’s exhausting.”

However, Bates states that the show will be her final one. “This is my last dance,” she revealed.With a 50-plus year career, the actress said of stardom, “I never really thought about being a movie star. I just wanted to be the best I could be.”

Bates won an Oscar for her role in Misery in 1990. She also won Emmys for her roles in American Horror Story: Coven and Two and a Half Men.

Despite her accolades, when looking back at her career, Bates 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.”

Her other television arcs include Six Feet Under, The Office, American Horror Story and Netflix’s two-season-long 2017 sitcom Disjointed. She was recently seen in Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret and Netflix’s A Family Affair.