Kathy Bates wishes Misery was even more miserable.
The Matlock star took the stage at the TCM Classic Film Festival alongside director Rob Reiner, where they looked back on the 1990 horror. The film is an adaptation of Stephen King’s 1987 novel, which sees Bates’ character, Annie Wilkes, rescue the beloved author Paul Sheldon (James Caan) after suffering a car crash.
After being “rescued,” Annie subjects him to a series of torture. In the original story, Paul loses his foot, which was a detail that ultimately was omitted from Reiner’s adaptation — a shift Bates wasn’t keen on.
“I was crushed that you took that out,” she told Reiner, per IndieWire. “I didn’t agree with that at all.”
During their conversation, they discussed Bates’ Academy Award winning performance, which was an accolade Reiner thought she wouldn’t win for the role.
“You said, ‘You can campaign, but you’re not gonna get it,’” Bates recounted. “You said because it’s a horror movie and not likely.”
Reiner was ultimately proven wrong. Bates won the Oscar for best actress in 1991, a moment the director fondly remembered. “You just stood up and went, ‘Yeeeaaaaaah!’” he added.
Still, despite the success Annie would bring Bates, she was initially “horrified” after watching the movie for the first time. “I thought it was the end of my career,” she admitted.
For Reiner, the four-time Oscar nominee was the perfect fit for the role, but nailing down the actor to portray Paul was a bit more difficult. He shared that William Hurt, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Harrison Ford, Dustin Hoffman, Kevin Kline, Michael Douglas, Robert Redford and Gene Hackman were all offered the role but turned it down. Warren Beatty was also slated to appear in the part at one point and assisted in shaping the writing.
“He said, ‘This is not a horror movie. This is not a thriller,’” said Reiner. “‘This is a prison movie. This man is in jail and he has to be as smart as you in trying to figure out how to get out of jail.’” After developing an “air-tight” script, Beatty changed his mind. “Beatty said, ‘I don’t know if I want to do it,’” he added.
