Kathy Bates makes affection with demands attached painfully believable. We rate her for that difficult mix of warmth and insistence, but her listening in Fried Green Tomatoes is just as persuasive.
Fi1m perspective
In Misery (1990), Kathy Bates makes Annie Wilkes's concern for the writer she holds captive horribly convincing. We were frightened by her kindness because she makes James Caan's Paul Sheldon seem obliged to repay it with obedience. Rob Reiner gives the pair a confined thriller in which Caan's wary responses matter as much as her possessiveness. Editor Robert Leighton lets Bates be funny without giving us time to feel safe. Annie can be ridiculous, but the performance never invites us to dismiss her.
That breakthrough was followed by Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), which asks her to do much of her work by listening. As Evelyn Couch, absorbing somebody else's experience, she makes the prospect of changing her own life believable. Director Jon Avnet benefits from her willingness to leave the process awkward, while Jessica Tandy prevents the earnestness from becoming oppressive. The screenplay by Fannie Flagg and Carol Sobieski keeps repeating its encouragement, long after Bates has made the point clear.
Supporting roles became a steady part of her film work, including Molly Brown in Titanic (1997) and Roberta Hertzel in About Schmidt (2002). In Alexander Payne's retirement comedy, her directness interrupts Warren Schmidt's private account of everyone around him. Jack Nicholson makes Warren's reserve seem difficult to abandon; Bates gives him someone who will not politely leave it alone. Their encounters are funny, though Payne pushes the broad comedy far enough to let the surrounding loneliness slip from view. Bates brings welcome energy, but the director still has to decide how much the scene can bear.
Kelly Fremon Craig finds a gentler use for that insistence in Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. (2023). Bates's Sylvia Simon takes her granddaughter's move from New York to New Jersey as a personal injury. Bates lets her be unreasonable without suggesting that her love for the girl is in doubt. Craig's gentleness suits her, although the film gives the grown-ups more of interest to do than the child at its centre. If Annie Wilkes is more company than the evening can bear, start with Fried Green Tomatoes.
Biography
Kathy Bates is an American actress. Born in Memphis, Tennessee, she studied theatre at Southern Methodist University before moving to New York City, where she began with minor stage and screen roles.
She received a Tony Award nomination for her performance in 'night, Mother (1983) and an Obie Award for Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (1988). Her breakthrough came with the role of Annie Wilkes in Misery (1990), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. She has since appeared in films including Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), Dolores Claiborne (1995), Titanic (1997), Primary Colors (1998), About Schmidt (2002) and The Blind Side (2009).
Bates has also worked extensively in television, with roles in series such as The Office, Harry's Law and American Horror Story, earning multiple Emmy Award nominations. In 2023 she played Sylvia Simon in Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.
