Kathy Bates says being “really healthy” has made “working a lot easier.”
The Academy Award winner, who previously opened up last year about her 100-lb. weight loss, has since told PEOPLE at the Paleyfest screening of Matlock on Sunday, March 23 that acting as of late has been a “magnificent experience.”
“When I was so heavy in Harry’s Law, I had to sit down in between every take, and it was awful,” Bates, 76, said of her 2011 drama series during the Los Angeles outing. “I’m ashamed to have put myself through that, to be honest.”
“But now that I’ve been able to get really healthy, I can move, I can breathe, I can have fun, I’m not sore,” she added. “I get tired and realize I’m like an old lady, but even the kids get tired. But it’s been a magnificent experience.”
Related: Kathy Bates Rewears Her Signature Sneex Heels and Rocks a Cinched Suit at the 2025 SAG Awards
Maya Dehlin Spach/WireImage
Kathy Bates attends the ‘Matlock’ screening at PaleyFest on March 23, 2025 in Los Angeles
As Bates explained, she “never expected to have this at my age, at the end of my career.”
Bates caught up with PEOPLE in October 2024, when she detailed what it was like to lose the amount of weight she did in the span of a few years — 80 lbs. over a seven-year period thanks to lifestyle changes and an additional 20 lbs. on Ozempic.
At the time, she revealed it was “hard work for me, especially during the pandemic,” adding that “it’s very hard to say you’ve had enough.”
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
The actress, who leads the Matlock reboot on CBS, said that she was inspired to get serious about her health after she was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes around 2017, adding that it “scared me straight” after she saw how it impacted her family. Her weight loss, Bates said, has “coincided beautifully” with the timing of her new show.
“Physically, I’m capable of doing this show,” she said. “I don’t have to sit down. I can stand up all day long and walk and move and breathe and do so many things that I couldn’t before.”
Related: Anna Sawai Reveals That Kathy Bates Sent Her Flowers After Her Emmys Win: ‘We Started Texting’ (Exclusive)
Frazer Harrison/WireImage
Kathy Bates attends the 31st Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards in 2025
The success of Matlock — which Bates told PEOPLE on Sunday has her “pinching myself” over how “unbelievable” it is — has also marked a major moment for the actress.
Just last month, she took home the trophy for best actress in a drama series at the 2025 Critics’ Choice Awards. At the time, she said she “really didn’t think this was going to happen.”
“When we come to work every day, there’s so much love on that set, and so many hundreds of years of experience, rolling the dolly, working the camera, the costumers, the crop people, they’re just the top of the line, and walking onto that set is just it feels like a miracle,” Bates said. “I’m so grateful to all of them.”
Read the original article on People
