Kathy Bates and the cut scene that crushed her: “I didn’t agree with that at all”
The idea of winning an Oscar for starring in a horror movie seems outlandish today. A notable exception to the rule is The Silence of the Lambs, which swept the board in 1991, with both Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster winning acting awards in their respective categories. Frederic March won ‘Best Actor’ in 1932 for his titular performance in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, whilst Ruth Gordon claimed ‘Best Supporting Actress’ for Rosemary’s Baby. However, the scariest Oscar-winning performance of all time surely belongs to Kathy Bates.
The star, who recently retired, is best known for her bone-chilling turn in Rob Reiner’s 1990 flick Misery. Adapted from the Stephen King novel of the same name, Bates plays Annie Wilkes, a nurse and obsessive fan of the novelist Paul Sheldon (James Caan). When Wilkes discovers Caan in the wreckage of a car crash, she rescues him, keeping him at her secluded cabin whilst he recovers. However, when she discovers he plans to kill off her favourite character in an attempt to revitalise his writing career, things take a turn for the dark.
Bates is superb in this film. There’s nothing particularly special or frightening about Wilkes; she’s a very ordinary woman in many senses. The terror comes from how everyday she is, that something as simple as an unpublished novel could send her into a violent spiral. Once she finds out what Sheldon is planning to do, Wilkes forces him to rewrite the new book, forcibly keeping him there by rebreaking his ankles with a sledgehammer in the film’s most disturbing scene. Although, things could have been much, much worse for our poor author.
In the book, Wilkes’ treatment of Sheldon goes a lot further. On the page, the deranged superfan doesn’t use a sledgehammer on her former idol’s foot, but rather an axe, severing the appendage clean off. She also cuts off his thumb with an electric knife after her captive refuses to tell her his new idea for an ending.
You can understand why Reiner wanted to keep the level of gore in the story to a minimum. If he’d included some of these elements, Misery would have been slapped with a higher age rating, which might have impacted its box office success and even its chances at major awards ceremonies. The director defended his decision at a screening of the movie organised by Turner Classic Movies. He said that Sheldon didn’t need to lose something after learning so many valuable lessons across the course of the film. One of his actors had a different viewpoint, though.
“I was crushed that you took that out,” Bates told Reiner (via IndieWire), referring to the amputation scene and another moment when Wilkes murdered a state trooper with a ride-on lawnmower. “I didn’t agree with that at all.” It’s unclear whether Bates thought this hurt the story or if she just really wanted to have a go on the mower. Those things do look fun.
Whilst the rejected scenes might have been more shocking and truthful to King’s original work, Reiner’s decision to tone down the violence in Misery meant he could focus on ramping up the tension in the piece. That’s where the film comes into its own. Bates might not have liked it at the time, but she couldn’t have been too upset with Reiner when he helped her land the biggest acting prize in the game.
