BATES’ SWITCH
Enjoys different kind of role in ‘Jewell’
Kathy Bates has played all kind of characters — and she’s hoping her next role will end a nightmare for the woman who inspired the part.
Clint Eastwood’s “Richard Jewell” hits theaters on Dec. 13, with Bates starring as Bobbi Jewell, the mother of the man wrongly accused of the bombing that left two people dead and injured 112 others at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
“I love the movie and I rarely love every movie I see myself in,” Bates told the Daily News Friday. “It’s a wonderful ensemble and working with Clint was just great.”
The story revolves around the trials of security guard Richard Jewell, who was identified as a terror suspect after discovering a bag full of pipe bombs in a park where the games were being hosted. He was eventually exonerated and credited for saving lives by identifying the explosives and trying to help clear the area before the bombs detonated. That vindication only came after months of media scrutiny and late show jokes at the 33-year-old law enforcement officer’s expense.
According to Bates, Bobbi blames public condemnation and ridicule for her son’s demise. In 2007, he suffered a fatal heart attack at the age of 44.
“(Bobbi) is still alive and she’s very emotional about it and seeing Paul
Walter Hauser, who plays Richard, was a shock for her because he looks exactly like him,” she said. “It ruined, obviously, his life.”
Bates will be on Broadway Monday, mainly as a spectator, for the 19th annual “24 Hour Plays on Broadway” gala, which coincides with a theatrical event featuring actors including David Harbour, Maura Tierney and Justin Long. She plans to speak at the Laura Pels Theatre gala benefiting the LE&RN organization’s efforts to fight lymphedema — a swelling of the arms and legs — which Bates became afflicted with seven years ago following a double mastectomy.
The gala marks the end of the annual “24 Hour Plays” extravaganza, in which an ensemble cast is given one day to write, direct and perform never-before seen shows for a live audience. Past thespians include Peter Dinklage, Jason Biggs and America Ferrera.
Among the performers she’s most excited about this year are Mat Fraser, her “American Horror Story” co-star, who was born with a deformation of the arms, and Tierney, who is a fellow breast cancer survivor.
Bates, 71, said that watching new actors perform is good for her as she expands her repertoire with characters like Bobbi Jewell, which she calls “a very different role” for her.
“I’m always trying to evolve,” she said. “I watch a lot of the young ones come up and how subtle they are and I’m trying to evolve and enjoy roles that are more subtle and not the Grand Guignol that I’m often playing.”
But at the end of the day, Bates is well aware that between her current gig on FX’s series “American Horror Story” and the 1990 film “Misery,” which won her an Academy Award, “horror has been very good to me, let’s just be honest.”
Bates also confessed that some people close to her didn’t think she needed to do much acting to play crazed literature enthusiast Annie Wilkes in “Misery.”
“My mother joked that she didn’t think I was acting and my ex-husband, husband at the time, said I’ve seen a few of those expressions,” she joked. “I guess we all have that in us. I’d like to think we don’t want to be one of the few.”