<p id=”par-1_6″>Kathy Bates had it all wrong. </p>
<p id=”par-2_62″>For years, <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/kathy-bates-retire-before-matlock-script.html/”>the <em>Matlock </em>star</a> was under the impression that she’d neglected to thank her mother in her 1991 <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/tag/oscars/?swcfpc=1″>Oscar</a> acceptance speech. But it turns out, her memory had played a trick on her. During a recent interview with Ben Mankiewicz, she learned that she had given her mom a shout-out from the stage. The realization left the 76-year-old actor visibly emotional. </p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-kathy-bates-mom-wasn-t-impressed-when-she-won-an-oscar”>Kathy Bates’ mom wasn’t impressed when she won an Oscar </h2>
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<iframe title='”Matlock” star Kathy Bates’ width=”925″ height=”520″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/YlEjyItb-Y0?feature=oembed” frameborder=”0″ allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share” referrerpolicy=”strict-origin-when-cross-origin” allowfullscreen></iframe>
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<p id=”par-3_56″>Bates has had a long career on stage and screen, but she may be best known for playing <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/kathy-bates-reacts-to-lizzy-caplans-castle-rock-portrayal-of-her-misery-character.html/”>Annie Wilkes in <em>Misery</em></a><em>. </em>She won an Academy Award for her unsettling turn as a fan who can’t handle it when an author kills off her favorite character. But her own mother wasn’t exactly impressed with her accomplishments. </p>
<p id=”par-4_64″>“When I won the Oscar for <em>Misery, </em>she said, ‘I don’t know what all the excitement is about. You didn’t discover the cure for cancer,’” Bates recalled in an interview that aired on <a href=”https://youtu.be/YlEjyItb-Y0?feature=shared” target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”><em>CBS Sunday Morning</em></a> on Oct. 6<em>. </em>(In a 2016 interview with <a href=”https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2016/11/kathy-bates-american-horror-story-bad-santa” target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>Vanity Fair</a>, Bates also revealed that her mother dismissed her award-winning performance by telling her, “You were just playing yourself.”)</p>
<p id=”par-5_9″>“I forgot to thank her that night,” she added. </p>
<p id=”par-6_18″>“You know, you did thank her,” Mankiewicz replied. “At the end of your speech. You did thank her.” </p>
<p id=”par-7_16″>Bates insisted she’d left her mother out of her speech. But the TCM host had proof. </p>
<p id=”par-8_33″>“I’d like to thank my family, my friends. My mom at home, my dad, who I hope is watching somewhere,” Bates says in a clip from the ceremony. (Bates’ father died in 1989.)</p>
<p id=”par-9_16″>Bates is the youngest of three children and has said she did not always feel wanted. </p>
<p id=”par-10_43″>“As I got older, I realized that I wasn’t meant to be,” she recently told the <a href=”https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/08/arts/television/matlock-kathy-bates.html” target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>New York Times</a>. “That has informed my evolution as a human being, and who you are as a human being, it’s who you are as an artist.”</p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-the-matlock-star-says-her-mother-should-have-had-my-life”>The ‘Matlock’ star says her mother ‘should have had my life’ </h2>
<figure class=”wp-block-image size-full” id=”emb-2″><img decoding=”async” src=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Kathey-Bates-Mother-Misery-Premiere.webp?strip=all&quality=80″ alt=”Kathy Bates and her mother at the ‘Misery’ premiere with Rob Reiner and James Caan” class=”wp-image-3725700″><figcaption class=”wp-element-caption”>Kathy Bates with her mother, Bertye Bates, Rob Reiner, and James Caan in 1990 | Vinnie Zuffante/Getty Images</figcaption></figure>
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<span class=”related-article-flag”>Related</span>
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The Next Episode of ‘Matlock’ With Kathy Bates Won’t Air Until October </a>
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<p id=”par-11_26″>Bates was visibly shocked when she watched the video. The <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/kathy-bates-american-horror-story-season-10-supposed-play-double-feature.html/”><em>American Horror Story </em>star</a> covered her mouth with her hands and couldn’t speak for several moments. </p>
<p id=”par-12_16″>“Thank you,” she said. “Why did I think I didn’t thank her? Oh, what a relief.”</p>
<p id=”par-13_18″>Mankiewicz asked why it meant so much to discover she had acknowledged her mother in her Oscar speech. </p>
<p id=”par-14_59″>“Because she should have had my life,” Bates replied. “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. Wow. Thank you so much for that.”</p>
<p id=”par-15_16″><em>For more on the entertainment world and exclusive interviews, subscribe to </em><a href=”https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWmTM34h0-P7FcCwuA6h6sw/videos” target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”><em>Showbiz Cheat Sheet’s YouTube channel</em></a><em>.</em></p>
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