For years, Kathy Bates has believed she missed thanking someone pivotal during her acceptance speech after she won the Oscar for best actress in 1991 for her performance in âMisery.â
During an interview with in which she promoted her new series âMatlock,â Bates talked to Ben Mankiewicz about her Oscar moment and her mother, Bertyeâs, response.
âWhen I won the Oscar for âMisery,â she said, âI donât know what all the excitement [is] about, you didnât discover the cure for cancer,ââ Bates recalled.
She also said she forgot to thank her mom during her acceptance speech, but Mankiewicz disputed that and showed her a video of her remarks in which she did, in fact, acknowledge her mother.
Bates was shocked and became visually emotional.
âThank you,â she said to Mankiewicz. âWhy did I think I didnât thank her?â
The elder Bates died in 1997 and her daughter said her mother âshould have had my life.â
âWhen she died, I said come into me. I wanted her spirit to come into me,â Bates said. âEven though we had so many difficulties, I wanted her spirit to come into me and enjoy everything I was enjoying because of what sheâd given up.â
Bates has said that starring in the reboot of the procedural drama âMatlockâ will be her final role as she plans on retiring.