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“The complexity of the role and the writing? I pinch myself every day,� she says. “A woman my age would never have such a role.�

In the new CBS drama, she plays a lawyer who goes back to work after a period away from the courtroom. Because clients, colleagues and others see past her, she’s able to get into places without being noticed. That helps her win cases and change opinions.

While it shares a title with an old Andy Griffith series, this isn’t the same “Matlock.�

“When I wrote this originally, I had a guiding principle,� says executive producer Jennie Snyder Urman. “I wanted to write about how older women are overlooked in society, and I gave myself a challenge. I wanted our heroine to be constantly telling the audience that she’s being underestimated and then I wanted the audience to enjoy watching her take advantage of that underestimation.�

Dual purpose

While Bates’ Madeline Matlock maneuvers the minefields of a prestigious New York law firm, she also has another motive that guides her. Urman’s “story within a story� should surprise viewers and prompt the reaction Bates offered when she read it.

“When this came along, how could I say no?� the Oscar-winner says. “I actually had one foot out of the door. I was doing smaller roles in films, and I thought I was going into semi-retirement. But this was just too exciting.�

Like others who have been in great pilots, Bates wondered if the second script would be “in a nosedive,� but found it was better than the first episode.

“So now I have to put in my order for a Swarovski walker," she says. “I’ve got a lot of lines to learn, and it’s been hard. But I’ve been taking really good care of myself and lost what you could refer to as a Romanian gymnast. I don’t think I could have done this without taking care of myself … it’s a tough schedule.�

Because she’s the show’s title character, the 76-year-old Bates is in a lot of scenes. Matty Matlock twists and turns, too, presenting one image at work and another at home.

“If it was just a procedural every week, I think it would get boring but there’s so much going on,� Bates says.

The job, she adds, is life and death for Matlock — “on a lot of levels. She has a lot of courage to do what she’s doing, so we’ll see.�

One door closes

In 2011, Bates played another lawyer on the NBC series, “Harry’s Law," that  landed her two primetime Emmy nominations. The show was canceled after two seasons, however, and in 2012, Bates was diagnosed with breast cancer. “I thought it was all over,� she says.

Then, Ryan Murphy gave her a job on “American Horror Story� in 2013, and her career once again flourished. Today, with two films in 2023 and three in 2024 to her credit, she’s busier than ever.

She likens the work to “creating a little bead on a necklace. You play each scene, and you have to have faith," Bates says. "When you’re making television or film, you’re breaking everything up, so we really have to be careful about where we are in the show and what’s happened and where we are in this character development. It all shifts and changes.�

When he looks at Bates’ script, co-star David Del Rio marvels. “The notes are from top to bottom,� he says. “It’s absolutely incredible to watch.�

Bates says the notations are necessities: “We go back and forth from home to office; I have to have an accent, then no accent, then accent … so it’s trying to stay on top of all that…but it’s a lot of fun.�

Keeping secrets

Pulling back the curtain, she says, was something she never wanted to do. When she started in the film business more than 30 years ago, “I wanted to think of the actors only as the characters," she says. "I never wanted to see them playing.�

Now, she’s too busy to worry about how others might see her Matlock.

“I just feel really lucky,� Bates says with a smile. “I get to play all those levels with everything I’ve learned in the last 50 years. I just love being able to play all those different notes.�