While much of the inaugural season of CBS’ “Matlock” can be understood as a platonic love story between Kathy Bates’ Madeline “Matty” Matlock and Skye P. Marshall’s Olympia, their friendship turns adversarial in Season 2 when Olympia learns that Matty has been lying about her identity, and her motive behind bringing their law firm down for its role in the opioid crisis that killed her daughter.
The shift was fertile ground for Marshall to expand the depths of the relationship she had built with Bates. By the time they shot the second season, Marshall said, “Kathy and I both were like lightning in a bottle, ready to burst.” With Matty proving successful in her truth-bending quest for justice, Season 2 puts the moral quandary in Olympia’s hands as she considers turning in the father of her children, Julian Markston (Jason Ritter), and her ex-father-in-law and boss, Howard “Senior” Markston (Beau Bridges), for their part in the opioid cover-up.
It was art imitating life as Marshall recalled struggles within her own family life. “It’s hard, having to decide what’s right, not who’s right; how much is it going to cost you; and who’s going to pay,” she said. “None of those choices are easy, but it is our responsibility to hold people accountable.”
As the heroines brought their relationship to new heights, Marshall followed the path paved by Bates, whose range, she said, “wraps race-car tracks around me. But I could meet her there.” In one scene, Matty rubs a lamp in her home during a moment of deep sadness over her daughter. For Marshall, Bates’ choice to make that gesture underscored the importance of body language. “We don’t make sense of the scene; we feel the sense of the scene,” she said. “You can’t prepare for any of that. If something doesn’t make sense, your body always keeps count, and it will track it for you, and it’ll do it in a marvelous and surprising way that you just don’t anticipate.”
In fact, a handful of takes that Marshall thought she fumbled were the ones that made it to air, which reminded her to throw out any preconceived notions of a scene. “We don’t search for perfectionism—we actually hope that we get a little messy,” she said. “That’s where we see the chemistry between Kathy and me. We’re looking at each other, and we start watering up. Even though the scene doesn’t ask for emotions, we just allow all of that to happen.”
Season 2 brings to a close the central mystery of Matty’s crusade when all of the firm’s senior leadership go to prison, which frees up Matty and Olympia to start their own firm leading into Season 3 (due in 2027). The setup made Marshall cry as she read the script. “From beginning to end, the filming of the finale, we treated it like a movie,” she said. “Suddenly that electricity comes through our bodies, because we know that the end is near, and we have a banger.”
With writing for Season 3 under way, Marshall asked showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman to “stretch me beyond my comfort.” The actress never doubts she’s in good hands with Urman, who always seems to know just where to take Olympia. “That level of trust is what I hold very dear in my heart, in my brain, in my throat,” she said. “I just hold it there and it won’t go away until our series comes to a wrap. That’s my driving force, and I don’t know what I’m capable of with that unless they write it, unless they really push me.”
This story first ran in the Drama Series issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine. Read more from the issue here.
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