Kathy Bates just nailed her 1991 Oscars speech.
Bates, who won Best Actress that year for her lead role in the 1990 thriller Miseryrecently sat down for an interview with Ben Mankiewicz for CBS Sunday Morning.
During their conversation, the actress, 76, claimed she “forgot to thank” her mother Bertha Bates in her Oscars speech. After her win, Bates recalled her mom, who later died in 1997, telling her, “I don’t know what the excitement is about; you haven’t found a cure for cancer.’ ”
But when Mankiewicz got Bates to watch her speech, she came to the surprising realization that she was, in fact, thanking her mother.
“I’d like to thank my family, my friends. My mom at home, my dad, who I hope is watching somewhere,” Bates was seen saying on stage at the performance.
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Watching the video, Bates became visibly emotional, putting her hand over her mouth before telling Mankiewicz, 57, “Thank you! Why did I think I didn’t thank her? What a relief.”
After the host asked why it means so much to Bates to know that she thanked her mother, Matlock the actress replied, “Because she should have had my life.”
“When she died, I said, ‘Come inside me,'” Bates continued. “I wanted her spirit to enter me. Even though we had so many difficulties, I wanted her spirit to enter me and enjoy everything that I enjoyed that she gave up.”
“Wow. Thank you so much for that,” she told Mankiewicz.
Kathy Bates (right) and her mother Bertye Bates at the premiere of the film Misery in Los Angeles on November 29, 1990.
Vinnie Zuffante/Getty
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Bates began acting in the 1970s and built a substantial career on stage before gaining attention on the big screen. She is perhaps best known for her Oscar-winning role as the evil Annie Wilkes in Misery opposite the late James Caan, adapted from Stephen King’s book of the same name.
Back in July, the actress opened up during the TCA Press Tour about how she dealt with the criticism and attention her career as a younger actress brought before she found success.
“When I was younger, I guess they would have hurt me a lot,” Bates said. – Sometimes I would get on a plane and fly home.
She went on to partially recall someone telling her at the time that she learned to take criticism better, ” ‘You have to have a head like a bullet and a heart like a baby.’ ”
“So that’s what I tried to do. But sometimes I go too far and I can be like a bull in a china shop,” Bates added.
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