When you’re in a film adapted from a beloved young adult novel like ‘Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret’ (April 28), every aspect of the movie has to be just right, so obviously directors turn to Kathy Bates. “I think the heart of acting is dress up...you play dress up and finally this character appears,” Bates told Newsweek’s H. Alan Scott. She plays Sylvia, Margaret’s grandmother, one of many obstacles Margaret must contend with as she faces puberty, adolescence, religion and discovering her early sexuality in the 1970s. To find Sylvia, Bates remembers something Jessica Tandy once told her. “We’re doing our kitchen work. We’re gathering all this stuff for the soup and putting this in the pot and that in the pot,” until a character appears. Bates has been doing great “kitchen work” for years, but credits Ryan Murphy for “kicking off this third act” after her Emmy-winning turn on ‘American Horror Story.’ She hasn’t stopped working since. Bates recently wrapped a new iteration of the drama series ‘Matlock,’ which she says is “not your grandmother’s Matlock.” “Spending 50 years of your life doing something you love, I’m so grateful.” Over the course of their chat, Bates reveals her favorite film performance, and it’s not the one you’re thinking of.  

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