Kathy Bates Shares Mom’s Reaction to Oscar Win: You Didn’t Cure Cancer

Kathy Bates won the Oscar for best actress in 1991 thanks to her chilling performance as Annie Wilkes in Rob Reiner’s “Misery.” It was one of the high points of Bates’ esteemed career, but it didn’t exactly impress her mother.

“When I won the Oscar for ‘Misery,’ [my mother] said, ‘I don’t know what all the excitement [is] about, you didn’t discover the cure for cancer,’” Bates said during an interview on “CBS Sunday Morning.”

Bates expressed regret over not thanking her mom during her Oscar acceptance speech. However, that wasn’t the case. Bates was informed during the “CBS Sunday Morning” interview that she did in fact give her mom a shoutout. The actor was shown a clip of her speech, in which she said: “I’d like to thank my family, my friends. My mom at home, my dad, who I hope is watching somewhere.”

The clip prompted Bates to tear up. She went on to say that her mother “should have had my life.”

“When she died, I said come into me,” Bates said. “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.”

Bates is currently the star of CBS’ “Matlock” reboot. She recently told Variety that she had been “contemplating semi-retirement” before the scripts for the series landed on her desk. Now the show has reinvigorated Bates’ spirit to continue acting. 

“My friends say I’ll probably be like Molière and die in my chair on the stage,” Bates quipped, “because it really is a life force for me.”

Watch Bates’ full interview on “CBS Sunday Morning” in the video below.