‘I took one pill and my whole body was gone’: Kathy Bates on opioids, ageing and selfish co-stars

As she stars in new legal serial Matlock, about a lawyer using people’s prejudices about older people to her advantage, the Oscar-winner opens up about surviving cancer, the Sacklers and watching herself on screen

Kathy Bates plays an elegant game in Sky’s new reboot of the 1980s legal drama Matlock. She’s the eponymous lawyer Matty, forced out of retirement having fallen upon hard times, thanks to her no-good husband. Or at least that’s what she says. There’s a lot of mischievous observation about ageism and the opportunities it presents: people look through her, so she can glide past security guards; people underestimate her, so she can bedevil them in negotiations; people shout over her like she isn’t there, so she destroys them in a way that’s pleasing to watch.

At first glance, this seems to be a straightforward whodunnit. But Bates would never have taken the role, she says, if that’s all there was to it. The show is certainly enjoyable, warming even, a bit like being hugged. Whether Madeline “Matty” Matlock is appearing in her assumed persona (cuddly, wise) or her true identity (passionate, crusading), she is always agreeably on the side of the angels. “We’ve had responses from people across all ages, across all demographics,” says Bates. “It is a comforting thing to be able to put your mind somewhere else, to something entertaining, that also has a bit of a mystery. People need that right now – to get away from everything and get lost.”