Kathy Bates' mother had surprising reaction to her Oscar win: ‘You didn’t discover the cure for cancer’
Kathy Bates’ mother wasn’t as excited about her daughter’s Oscar win as might be expected.
In an interview with Ben Mankiewicz on “CBS Sunday Morning,” Bates recalled her mother’s response to her best actress win for the 1990 film “Misery.”
“When I won the Oscar for ‘Misery,’ she said, ‘I don’t know what all the excitement [is] about, you didn’t discover the cure for cancer.’”
Bates continued, saying she forgot to thank her mother during her speech, but Mankiewicz shared a clip revealing she actually did.
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The clip brought the actress to tears of relief, explaining, her mother “should have had my life.”
“When she died, I said come into me. I wanted her spirit to come into me. 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’d given up.”
Earlier in the interview, Bates shared that her parents put off retirement to fund her college tuition.
“My father literally had a heart attack after two or three years of giving up… 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.”
“When I won the Oscar for ‘Misery,’ she said, ‘I don’t know what all the excitement [is] about, you didn’t discover the cure for cancer.’”
Bates told The New York Times last month she was considering her own retirement after her new series, “Matlock,” eventually ends.
“Everything I’ve prayed for, worked for, clawed my way up for, I am suddenly able to be asked to use all of it. And it’s exhausting,” she told the outlet, adding, “This is my last dance.”
In her “CBS Sunday Morning” interview, she revealed she had a bad experience on an undisclosed film project that made her question working in Hollywood.
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“I think when you feel that kind of betrayal, it really devastates,” she said.
But after landing the role on “Matlock,” which she called “one of the most wonderful roles I’ve ever had to play,” she rethought her stance.
“Not retiring. And I’d love to stay with the show as long as it runs, and I hope it runs a very long time,” Bates said.
