Kathy Bates names her favourite movie role
Having won an Academy Award and a Tony to go along with two trophies each from the Emmys, Golden Globes, Baftas, and Screen Actors Guild Awards, Kathy Bates has experienced plenty of acclaim and recognition during her career. However, her favourite movie role is one that saw her shut out from all of the major ceremonies.
Adapted from the Stephen King novel of the same name, Tony Gilroy penned the screenplay for Taylor Hackford’s Dolores Clairborne, with Bates playing the title role. Having netted an Oscar for ‘Best Actress’ when she inhabited a character created by King in Misery, the star was well-placed to deliver another incredible turn as one of the iconic author’s complex protagonists.
Bates’ Clairborne is employed as a housekeeper by wealthy-but-cold Vera Donovan, played by Judy Parfitt, but finds herself accused of murder when her paymaster is discovered dead. Taking it upon herself to dig deeper into the matter, Dolores’ estranged daughter Selena – who happens to be an investigative journalist – endeavours to uncover the truth while also slowly reconnecting with her estranged mother.
Success at the box office after recouping its modest $13million production budget almost four times over and the recipient of stellar reviews from critics, Dolores Claiborne didn’t quite manage to capture the broader imagination in the same way that many other acclaimed King adaptations have managed to do, including Bates’ own Misery.
Despite that, Bates acknowledged in an interview with Newsweek that she’s become accustomed to the film being retrospectively praised, something that director Hackford has also experienced, stating: “It’s interesting, I just had dinner with Taylor Hackford and Helen Mirren maybe six months ago, and he gets the same comments.”
Naming Dolores Claiborne as her “favourite film experience”, Bates reasoned that working with both an actors’ director and talented stars as part of the ensemble played a part: “Maybe a lot of it has to do with the fact that Taylor is married to Helen, he understands what the actors’ process is,” she said.
“And the excitement of being able to create a character that was young and old. And working with Jennifer [Jason Leigh] and David Strathairn,” before going on to commend “Stephen King’s story and his characters”. That being said, Bates was left “disappointed to this day” that it didn’t catch on the way she believed it should have done at first.
Agreeing that she maybe should have made the ‘Best Actress’ shortlist that year, Bates even received a note from one of her peers who was in full agreement: “I remember Anne Bancroft sent me a note at the time saying what an amazing performance and that I didn’t get an Oscar, but I got an Annie.” Bespoke awards from Bancroft aside, Dolores Claiborne will have to make do with its status as Bates’ personal favourite performance.
