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THE WHOLE TRUTH From left: Bates in character as Bobi Jewell; preparing for a scene with director Clint Eastwood on set.
HEN KATHY BATES SMASHED THAT SLEDGEHAMMER into James Caan’s ankles 30 years ago in Misery, the world may have collectively cringed, but it made Bates an unforgettable force in Hollywood history. The then 42-year-old actress wasn’t a household name when she took on that role of the now-iconic homicidal nurse Annie Wilkes.
Bates had theatrical successes
and has this wily sense of humor that’s kind of flirty and fun. And she baked me a pound cake because it was my birthday.” The method by which Bates embodies her roles was first impressed upon her by Alvina Krause, “a wonderful, wonder-
And Richard Jewell really does
sat and talked for two or three hours
ful teacher and director who ran
before, some smaller roles on film,
matter, in that telling the true story
and I recorded her voice. We went
Northwestern for years. She told me,
and in television shows like St. Else-
of a wrongly-accused person will
through the script and she corrected
‘You bring the character, you know
where and L.A. Law. And yet, she took
always matter. Jewell surely deserves
a few things. She teared up quite a
who the character is, how they dress.
home an Oscar with Misery, her first
all the public exoneration a big-name
few times. She was very determined.
What’s precious to them. The jewelry
major movie role.
feature film can deliver, even after his
She gave me the Vanity Fair article
they wear, what it means. The music
untimely death in 2007 at just 44.
that Marie Brenner had written that
they listen to.’ It means you really
the film is based on. Bobi looked very
have to work hard before you get to
This year, she’s enjoying her fourth Academy nomination, this
The film details his intense media
time for Richard Jewell, the Clint
and FBI hounding, while his mother
different then, she was more my size,
the set, which is what Jessica Tandy
Eastwood-directed true tale of
Bobi, played by Bates, suffers under
so that made me feel good. At one
used to call our ‘kitchen work’. When
a heroic security guard falsely
the weight of defending her son.
point I said, ‘I just want to get this
you’re slicing the vegetables to make
accused of planting a bomb at the
Feeling “very nervous”, Bates
right for you Bobi.’ And almost like a
soup, which reminds me of Lily Tom-
1996 Atlanta Olympics, although he
flew to Atlanta ahead of the shoot
little girl, she said, ‘Well, just be me.’
lin and her wonderful one-woman
actually found the device and saved
for her first meeting with Eastwood.
And I thought, ‘Oh God, if that were
show, [The Search for Signs of Intel-
many lives.
“I remember asking him why he
true, I’d have 15 Academy Awards by
ligent Life in the Universe]. Making
wanted to make this movie,” she
now.’ I had to, as an actor, create a
soup, is it soup or is it art? You don’t
only very recently, in conversation
says, “and at first he looked up with
character of Bobi, otherwise it would
even realize it’s happening.”
with Eastwood, that Bates allowed
those eyes and I thought, ‘Oh God,
have been robotic. You can’t just go
herself to consider her success.
here we go.’ Then he said, ‘Well,
in and try to mimic somebody.”
Despite the Oscar recognition, it’s
Bates shared the screen with Tomlin in Woody Allen’s Shadows and Fog,
“I said to Clint, ‘I’ve been doing
I think it’s a movie I’d like to see.’
Jewell resonated personally for
this for 50 years, but I finally feel like
He was so angry at how Richard
Bates. “I grew up in Memphis, and
nominated Fried Green Tomatoes, both
I hit the big time,’ and I don’t mean
had been treated. He felt this was
she reminded me of my mother a
released in 1991, hot on the heels of
with all the marching bands and
an American tragedy, and that it
lot,” she says. “She’s a Baptist, my
Misery. The ’90s also served up the
the confetti, I mean, working with
needed to be told.”
mother was a Baptist. She has that
role of ‘The Unsinkable Molly Brown’
poise, that sense of humor, that grit.
in Titanic, and a part in The Waterboy
It’s in her posture. She’s in her 80s
opposite Adam Sandler—who, despite
another incredible director, and doing a story that matters.”
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So, she went to work, researching Bobi Jewell. And then they met. “We
and with Tandy in the double Oscar-
D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E
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