- People say, "Well, how do you do what you do?"
I mean, it's in all of us, you know,
the most fun we had as kids was when we played dress up,
and pretended, and we could be anything we wanted.
They call it a play.
They call it a screenplay.
You say, "I play a role."
It's always play, and it's that little kid inside of you,
only now you have the best costume designers
and the best make-up, and the best scripts,
and it's all, like, at a huge heightened reality.
That's what I love about it.
[instrumental music]
Hi, this is Kathy Bates,
and this is the timeline of my career.
[instrumental music]
♪I was born♪
♪into a world♪
♪full of angels and kings♪
The first film role that I had was with Milos Forman,
his first American film called "Taking Off",
and I taught myself how to play the guitar
when I was 12 my mom bought me an old Silvertone
for 20 bucks at Sears and I ended up writing a song
about loss of innocence when I was around 16,
and then when I got to New York,
through friends, I met Milos.
My song was featured.
Carly Simon's song was featured.
It was really cool.
We got paid five dollars a day,
and I don't think SAG new about any of that.
I loved acting in high school, and I was very serious
about acting on stage.
I wasn't particularly focused on being in film.
The whole working with Milos was a real accident for me.
Hello Max.
- Hi Selma.
- You didn't bring any beer, did you?
- No, was I supposed to?
- I got it.
- Good.
- Warren Beatty saw "Vanities",
which was a play we did off Broadway,
and he told his buddy Dustin Hoffman about me.
We were all at Dustin's house.
There was a scene where we were supposed to talk
through a screen door.
I don't know where he got the screen door,
but he was holding this screen door in between us,
and we did the scene together,
and he really liked some of the things that I did,
and he cast me in the role right then and there.
And, I remember saying to him, "Can I call my mother?
I mean, you know, is this really happening?"
And he said, "Yeah."
And I'll always be so fond of Dustin
because he's just an actors actor.
He literally took me by the hand and walked me across
this empty soundstage and said, "That's the camera."
And he was totally serious about it.
He was so excited, I think, for me as an actor
having this first speaking role.
I learned so much from him, I had followed his movies.
He was so passionate and so excited, still, to be an actor.
I feel so fortunate that that was my first speaking role,
working with someone as talented and as committed as Dustin.
But the other really cool things was, is that,
they were trying to cast a kid to play our son
and Gary Busey's kid, Jake, decided...
You know, they asked him if he would consider doing it
and he was five.
He said he had to think about it and, so the next day,
Gary came in with Jake and he said Jake had said to him,
"Well, I guess acting is like pretending,
but making believe like you're not pretending."
And we all thought, that's is, that's the bottom line,
you know, all the actor classes could,
just, learn this one thing.
Shhh, darling, trust me.
- For God's sake.
- It's for the best.
- [Paul Sheldon] Annie, please!
- So, I was still very much involved in theater
when I moved out to L.A. and I did a production of
"Aunt Dan and Lemon", but Rob Reiner was dating
Elizabeth McGovern, who was in the play,
and he would come almost every night and bring her roses,
and he saw me playing this fanatic.
And, I think he had seen me in plays in New York, too.
So, when it came time to cast "Misery",
I think they were interested in Bette Midler,
and certain names, you know, to play this character.
And then they decided, maybe it was better to go
with somebody who was really unknown.
So, I went in, and it was similar to being cast
in "Straight Time" in that, you know,
I came into Rob's office and sat down,
read a scene or two with him, and then he cast me.
And I said, "Can I call my mother?" [laughter]
You know, it's like, he said,
"yeah, you can call your mother",
and it was really hard to find a guy who wanted
to be in that vulnerable position, but he tried everybody.
He tried Redford, he tried, you know, Beatty,
at one time was gonna do it.
Finally, Jimmy said yeah.
It was the worst thing you could
have asked Jimmy Caan to do,
because he hates not moving.
He knows every sport in the world.
You know, he hated being in bed.
Also, I have to confess, you know,
sometimes you have to look really, really close
to the lens, and the other actor can't see you,
and I had a crush on the operator,
so sometimes Jimmy was, like, "Is this okay, Jimmy?
You know, you can wait this one out."
You know and I'd be looking at Todd,
beautiful blue eyes, and I could play Annie
and stuff with him.
The other great thing about doing "Misery" was
I got a really beautiful trailer, it was powder blue inside,
and I got in and I sat there for about 20 minutes,
and I thought, "Well, this is really lonely.
Why am I, you know, what am I gonna do in here
by myself?"
So I hung out on set with everybody,
and, by then, Rob had a fantastic crew of people,
people he'd worked with for years
who were creme de la creme.
I learned so much just hanging out,
besides flirting with Todd,
I remember working with Tony Serrano,
he was the mans costumer, he was working with Jimmy,
and we were just passing each other on the soundstage,
and he just threw over his shoulder,
he said, "Get your Oscar dress ready."
And I was like, you know, because again, I wasn't thinking,
I just wanted to be the best I could be.
I'd like to thank the Academy.
I've been waiting a long time to say that.
[screaming]
[tires squealing]
[laughter]
Yeah!
Whooo!
What often happens after someone wins an Academy Award
is you never work again, because,
I guess they feel like, "you're terrific,
stamp of approval, now we can move on to somebody else."
So it was hard for me, for awhile, to find roles
that weren't car roles and, just,
what was I going to do next, and, so, it took me awhile.
I was in Japan, I was publisizing "Misery",
and getting over jet lag and all that.
And I got this script, "Fried Green Tomatoes" to read.
And I read it and I thought it was great.
I had read Fannie Flagg's book.
It was very brave of Fannie to write "Fried Green Tomatoes"
way back then because of the prejudice against lesbians.
I think, even in the film, it's more suggested.
It's not really spelled out.
So that drew me to it, that kind of bravery,
and the relationship between those two lovely women.
How fierce Idgie was in fighting for her friend.
I'd like to go back and do some of those early scenes,
it was hard for me to get ahold of the kind of,
I don't know, the naivete and the southern woman
whose grown up in the south that I grew up,
but the south that I ran away from.
Thank God, I was working with Jessica Tandy.
Working with her was amazing because you could see how
her craft was a life force in her.
She was 84 at the time, and I felt like my own light
was kind of going out inside, and I don't know why,
but I remember knocking on her trailer one day,
and she opened it, and she said,
"Oh, you've come to see the wise woman."
I spent the day with the people at the bank.
Turns out you weren't supposed to do that.
Lie to them, make them break their rules.
- What?
What are you goin' do?
- I got all that money given right back to me in cash.
"Dolores Claiborne" was a novella by Stephen King,
that Taylor Hackford directed.
I loved working on that film because Taylor
gave me every tool that I needed to create that character.
You see her when she's in her forties,
and then later on when she's at the end
of this very hard life in her sixties.
I had a fantastic movement coach,
because we wanted to figure out the difference
in the spine, the difference in the hands,
the difference in the movement in a younger woman
and in a woman who's been on her knees
taking care of things, and also,
I know from getting older that,
because you're used to doing things, you have a shorthand.
When your cooking of doing, well, I don't cook,
but we wanted that, we wanted the difference
in the hands.
It was what I had studied to do,
was to create a whole character like that.
It was an amazing experience to work together
on all of this and we had a good long time to do it,
and in Nova Scotia, oh, it was so beautiful.
We were so cold when we got there,
and then it, just, this incredible spring and summer.
It was just, oh, it was just an amazing time
that I'll, just, never forget.
I don't understand a one of ya.
What's the matter with ya, it's your men out there!
The role in "Titanic" was just a gift.
Once again, we had training.
We had a woman who, literally, taught us
how to use our silverware and how to move as the ladies
and how to put our napkins on our laps.
- [Man] ...eyes of God, she belongs to Thomas Anderly.
- Are these all for me?
- Just start from the outside and work your way in.
Jim Cameron, he's a genius.
He had gone down in this submersible,
I think he'd been down to the Titanic,
he real Titanic, three times.
And it takes about two and a half hours to,
really, sink all the way down there.
Which would [shudders].
He also created the snoop dog that went in
through the different holes it the ship.
And a lot of what you see in the film,
the doll, the glasses, is what he photographed.
I remember going down to Baja, he build a studio.
He built a 7/8th replica of the Titanic.
I remember, 'cause we'd have to go up
inside the ship to do the promenade,
so that was on the other side,
'cause the wanted to see the ocean in the background.
So, I went up in this elevator,
walked across some planks, and I opened this door,
and I saw people strolling, and it was, suddenly, 1912.
Everybody was in Deborah Scott's amazing costumes.
She got costumes from all over the world,
like 4000 vintage costumes,
and I couldn't see anything else,
but these people who were the background,
who were walking up and down and I thought,
"Holy crap, I feel like I've just walked into another time,
another place."
It was on hydraulics.
So, he flooded the whole damn thing.
It was just astounding what he did,
and it was also maddening,
because the ship went down at night,
so it was all night shoots.
So, you'd get there at five and get all suited up,
and then you would sit there in your dressing room
until they called you at, like, three in the morning,
and I don't know how Kate and Leo did that.
They were working so hard,
and they were pushing their calls.
They were working in cold water.
And it was, it was an amazing experience.
Paramount and Fox had to come together
to create this magnificent opus,
and there were a lot of us who felt like, you know,
"I don't know if this is going to work."
And he ended up winning all of those Academy Awards,
and I feel very honored to have been in that film.
I will not let you [bleep] up this campaign too.
I will not let it happen.
- That was 20 years ago.
- Yes, I was thinner then, I had a waist.
In 1998, Mike Nichols cast me in "Primary Colors"
with John Travolta, Emma Thompson, Billy Bob Thornton,
amazing group of people that was,
really based on Bill Clinton.
I couldn't believe I was working with him.
He would tell us stories,
the first time we got around the table,
because he wanted to tell us what it was like
to be part of that group and that, you know,
that kind of political group,
and he had some amazing stories to tell us,
like, he was there the night that Marilyn Monroe
was in the Garden and sang "Happy Birthday" to JFK,
and hearing Bobby Kennedy and Marilyn talking
to each other as they were dancing later,
and hearing Marilyn say, "I really like you, Bobby."
and hearing Bobby say, "I really like you too, Marilyn."
And he would just have all these amazing stories,
and there was just nobody like him.
I think the best directors are the ones who
can play all of the characters deep down to their marrow.
That's how they help you if you're not there yet,
or if you haven't thought of it.
He knew everything about Libby Holden.
I remember, we were just about to finish,
and I was getting an opportunity to direct,
my first time, and, so, I was very shy.
I said, "so, you know,
what kind of advice can you give me, Mike?",
and he said, "I, you know, even though I'm an actor,
I'm kind of nervous about directing other actors
because, you know when you work with other actors,
you're never supposed to say anything
about what their doing, that's the directors job."
And he said, "Love 'em, just love 'em.", and he was right.
Foosball!
You playing the foosball behind my back?
- The only reason I'm doing it so I can go to school.
- School!?
I remember picking up this script, "The Waterboy",
and I read the first 12 pages, it was really silly,
it was football movie, and I thought, eh,
and I threw it in the trash.
And, my niece, who worked with me, and still does,
came in and said, "What is this?"
And I said, "eh, I don't know.
It's some movie by some kid, Adam Sandler."
And she just exploded,
and she said, "Adam Sandler!
You don't know the Hanukkah Song, you don't know San..."
you know, so, she said, "you've go to do this.
You've got to do this."
And I said, "okay, let me read it again."
And I still was kind of doubtful,
I didn't know what to expect,
and then, suddenly, we were down shooting in Orlando
with Sandler and his crew and Henry Winkler.
It was just, suddenly, it's that play again!
It was just, I don't know how to explain it,
it's just somewhere a character just comes out,
and she was such a fun person to play,
'cause one of the things I think is my Achilles heel,
both as a person and as an actor,
I take things way too seriously.
This was an opportunity to just let it all hang out,
and just play and be silly,
and it turned out to be one
of the most wonderful experiences of my whole life.
I felt so free, I could do anything.
I looked at a couple of clips the other day,"
and I thought, "Oh my God, oh, God,
those gel alligators that Fairuza had to eat.
Oh my God".
And it was just, it was so much fun, it really was.
I have very fond memories.
And I remember they made 34 million their first weekend,
and that was way back then,
and Adam said, "what happened?
I can't believe this!
This is amazing!"
You know, and it was...
He's a good, he's a good egg.
I never stressed it,
but they were often very trying people to deal with,
in many ways.
Another role that came my way was "Revolutionary Road",
an incredible book, which I recommend.
And it was exciting with me to reunite with Kate and Leo.
I think it'd been ten years
since I'd seen them after "Titanic".
I remember we were all at the table and Sam Mendes,
this magnificent director, so excited,
I had met with him at this hotel,
and I kept asking, "Is the part mine, really?"
I mean, I couldn't grasp that.
We were in New York, we were rehearsing,
and I said who's playing my son,
this guy who's a psychotic, you know, crazy guy.
And he said, "This guy named Michael Shannon,"
and he said, "Do you want to see his audition tape?"
We all said, "Yeah, Yeah, we want to see it."
We went on and sat down on the sofa,
and he ran this tape and we were like...
And I just said, "Yikes!
This guy!"
And, from behind me, Kate said something like,
"okay, we're all going to have to work a lot harder."
[laughter]
John, please.
- [laughter drowns out speech] John, son.
- The other thing that I loved about meeting Michael,
and working with him, another very different kind
of actor in terms of his approach,
was seeing how Leo had, he had come into his power,
as an actor.
And there was one scene where he's really attacking us,
and he filled that whole room with his rage,
and I thought, "wow, to see an actor go from this boy,
innocent, to this powerful man, this powerful actor
was just astounding".
And I was so thrilled for him to be able to be there,
to witness it, and working with Kate,
and shooting in Connecticut, and, it was wonderful.
It was one of those special times in my career,
that I'll always, again, there are just a handful
that you feel, and I don't want to cast dispersions
on anybody else, I've had half a century,
a wonderful career, but, there's a handful of films, that,
if you're lucky, are the ones that you feel most proud of.
- For new jobs, and new opportunity.
And new security for the middle class.
[door latch opens]
- [Madam LaLaurie] Oh lord, my God,
have you forsaken this once proud country?
In 2012, I was doing a television show named "Harry's Law",
and we were canceled.
That was a real sock in the gut.
And I wasn't physically in good shape.
I let myself go.
I had been in an unhappy relationship
and I just didn't care anymore.
So, it was an emotionally difficult time for me.
I had been getting pains in my abdomen
and I'd had ovarian cancer in 2003,
so I was always worried that, maybe, that would come back.
And I had a scan, and they discovered I had breast cancer.
I developed lymphedema right away,
which means that you don't have enough lymph nodes
in the affected limb and lymph fluid can back up
in your arms.
So, it was really, really a bad time,
and recovering from the surgery was bad.
I just didn't think I would ever work again.
I just thought, "this is it.
I'm tired.
I'm exhausted.
I'm fed up with everything."
I was pissed off, angry at everybody.
I didn't even know where to go to get the treatment
for lymphedema.
And, one of my surgeons looked up and found a woman
named Dr. Emily Iker, and I went to her,
and told her this sad story,
and she's this very charming, very petite,
Czechoslovakian woman, and she said in this accent,
which I will attempt badly, she said,
[in affected Czech accent] "Darling, that's all in the past.
Now, you will have a glass of champagne,
and you will begin the rest of your life."
And she had that thing that some doctors have,
which is, just, their vibe is healing.
And, it felt like all of that negativity just fell away.
So, I went and met with Ryan Murphy,
and, in that meeting, it's like that little kid
that I talked about before.
Suddenly, that little kid woke up,
the one that had been beat over the head
with the cancellation and the cancer,
and, just, jumped up inside and, like, ran around the room.
And, I got so excited about it,
and that was the beginning of Coven.
That was Madame LaLaurie, and she was a real person,
so I loved studying her, and at that time,
I didn't know what the premise of the story was.
I didn't know they were going to be, kind of,
like a rep company,
and you got to play different parts every season.
I got to work with Gaby Sidibe, and Jessica,
and Sarah Paulson, and Franny Conroy,
and, just these amazing gals,
and then I got to go to the next season,
and the season after that.
And Ryan really brought my career
into my third act with a bang.
So, I owe him a lot, I really do,
I always will, and I will regret to my living days
that I was so nervous at the Emmys when I won
that I neglected to thank him.
I was all about the crew, you know.
Thank you all so very much!
I just forgot to thank Ryan and he was very upset,
and he was right to be upset,
and he's gotten over it now,
but I don't know if I ever will.
Yes, we're thanking Ryan Murphy here.
Thank you, Ryan.
My son is innocent.
Mr. President, please clear my son's name.
I didn't know much about the bombing
of the Olympics in 1996.
When I read the script and I started to do the research,
I was horrified at what had happened to Richard Jewell.
They made fun of him; horrible headlines.
Horrible.
I mean, as an actor, even a sentence in a review
can just go right to my heart and I'll never forget it,
but I would never, I could never imagine
being the subject of these horrible headlines.
I sat with Bobi and researched with her for a long time,
and taped her voice,
and she got very emotional several times,
it's still very raw in her.
I'm not always able to choose something
that's gonna fill me with joy,
and, you know, I think is going to be
this magnificent film, and, in a lot of ways,
with Richard Jewell, I told Clint,
who it's been an incredible honor to work with,
and he's 89 and he's so damn sexy,
and just great to work with.
You have a real freedom with him on set,
and I won the National Board of Review,
and this was all happening so fast and I told Clint,
I said, "you know, I've been in this business 50 years,
but I finally feel like I hit the big time."
My goal was to tell people that he was a hero.
To be able to have that heart in such a...
Something you can do for somebody,
a real person, to change, hopefully,
change something in their lives,
is just such a gift.
You don't get the opportunity to do that as an actor.
Everything you do, you want it to be just great,
and you want it to be the best you can be.
You know, I always reach for the best I can do,
and I guess it's that illusive carrot
that hangs in front of all of us as we're trying
to pursue that passion and that goal.