So, really, to whet the appetite so that when you finally meet her, it means something.
And she put that into my head.
And when you hear an idea that’s just right, you have to do it.
Kathy Bates on ‘Matlock’.Credit:Michael Yarish/CBS
I hadn’t known that Ellie was going to die around the custody battle.
Did Kathy indicate where that idea came from?
I think it was her metabolizing the character and thinking about it a lot.
Kathy Bates on ‘Matlock’.Sonja Flemming/CBS
And we talked extensively about what the loss of Ellie meant for her.
Kathy has a lot of brilliant ideas, and I think this was one of them.
And I think probably in creating that character, that circumstance came up for her.
Leah Lewis, Skye P. Marshall, and Eme Ikwuakor on ‘Matlock’.Michael Yarish/CBS
How did the casting process for Ellie work?
You wanted to hug her and say, “you’re able to do it.
you could get through this.”
Kathy Bates on ‘Matlock’.Michael Yarish/CBS
How did you and the writing team go about crafting Matty’s testimony on the witness stand?
And so those are all the layers that I think you see Kathy operating.
Matty’s description of infant withdrawal is probably the heaviest moment in the show so far.
Did you feel the weight of the subject matter while in the process of researching addiction?
This is a heavier episode overall.
So yeah, it’s heavy.
This is so painful."
And a look at addiction is really important for the whole series.
Are you lying to people so that you could do more of it?
Are you changing your moral center so that you might do more of it?
This has become your addiction so that you don’t have to deal with other pain."
So our whole show wants to look at addiction, I think, with compassion.
Do you remember how Kathy reacted upon seeing these flashback scenes on the page?
And she’s a rigorous prepper in the best way.
So yeah, it was exciting.
Everybody felt very safe and excited to do it.
How much of this backstory from this episode do you reckon that Alfie is aware of?
We’ve talked about it a lot.
I think that they’ve been honest overall.
Should we expect to see more of Ellie depicted on screen?
Will we see any more flashbacks of this size this season?
There’s one more.
We had planned these three moments.
[Olympia’s divorce, Ellie’s death, and a third.]
Kind of every six episodes or something.
There’s a different kind of flashback coming.
It’s a little bit more fantasy.
Matlockairs new episodes Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
