Kathy Bates continues her Emmy-nominated role as prickly lawyer Harriet "Harry" Korn on a new season of Harry's Law. With the season 2 premiere airing this Wednesday, we got the Oscar-winning actress to share some sneak peeks and style tips.
You’re back for another season. It shows that David E. Kelly has done something right. Do you think so?
I hope so. I think we have a wonderful audience base that watched us last year and I’m thrilled to be back. I’m very happy to have a job every day and it’s what I’ve come to love to do... I enjoy acting. I’ve always enjoyed it and I’m really enjoying working on this particular character and the challenge of also putting in the hours that we do for television and it’s been difficult but a pleasure if that makes sense. I like getting up in the morning and going to work. I can’t believe I’d say that but I do.
What do you find the most impressive or surprising about Harry?
I think all of us have been in situations where we’ve maybe had a confrontation with someone and we walk away from it and then maybe a few minutes later or even a day later we think, “Oh, I wish I had said that. I wish I had been clever enough to say exactly this to that person.” And I think that’s one of the things that Harry has is that ability that we all wish we had to say in the moment eloquently and forcefully exactly what’s on our mind and what even makes the best argument at a given moment. And it’s fun to be able to sort of - to play someone that has that almost superhuman ability to express themselves in that way. And I love playing a character who's blunt, who’s irritable, who doesn’t get along with everybody, who doesn’t make any secret of her feelings and yet at the same time she’s complex and we don’t really understand everything that’s going on with Harry at the moment and things are revealed in time. And I enjoy playing that complex character.
Do you think that the new characters that are coming in, Mark Valley’s character and Karen Olivo’s character, are they going to help sort of dimensionalize Harry and bring out more of her aspects?
I think both with Karen and with Mark who I already adore working with, she - Harry’s got some issues with Mark’s character, Ollie, he doesn’t always rub her the right way. And I think with Karen’s character, she’s becoming a bit of a mentor. At first she’s very blunt with Cassie and, you know, doesn’t treat her very well but in the later episodes I’m discovering she’s beginning to have a mentor relationship with her which is something that Harry detests doing but I think she’s beginning to embrace more in her old age.
They seemed to pay a lot of focus in Season 1 to making it sort of a family dynamic in that law firm and so with what you’re saying of Harry becoming a mentor to these new people it seems there's an emotional reaction to Aml Ameen and Brittany Snow’s characters leaving. Do they pay that service in Season 2?
They do. Certainly they do in Brittany’s case. In Aml’s case, Malcolm is said to be off studying at school and so they haven’t really dealt with him in the same way. I hope it leaves it open for him to come back. But they certainly do deal, and I don’t want to give too much away, but they do deal with Jenna leaving.
In Season 2 will we get an opportunity for Harry to have a love interest? Is there any potential romantic interest between Harry and Tommy Jefferson?
Well, there is definitely a chemistry between the two but I think it has to do with something a bit more basic and that is of all the people in the office, he’s the one that understands her dilemma with getting older and how she looks at life. And he’s the only one that kind of can commiserate. But I think Tommy has demonstrated on more than one occasion that he has a thing for the younger ladies and for the - he usually pays to have a companion. So I doubt that they would have a romantic fling. I think he goes more for the younger ones. I don’t know whether Harry would have a romantic interest. I think it would have to be somebody who would really be used to - would have to be somebody who would put up with how prickly she is certainly.
Do you consider Harry as a type of role model for women?
Well, I think she’s a professional woman. I think she’s a woman who’s probably given a lot for her profession and I’m very curious about Harry’s background. I know she’s been married a couple of times and you never know with David whether a prodigal child will show up at some point or not. And so I don’t know that she’s necessarily a role model for women. I mean I think she is certainly a woman who speaks her mind and tries to stand up for those causes that she believes are right. And she certainly speaks eloquently in the courtroom and she’s a smart woman. She’s not particularly affectionate I don’t think. I think she’s got a heart of gold underneath all of that but she’s pretty blunt and pretty straightforward. I guess I don’t know that I think of her as a role model for women except for the fact that she is a strong woman and that she has made her way certainly in a world that is very difficult for women which is the law I think.
Do you struggle with aging? Can you share some of your style secrets because you always look great.
I’ll answer the second question first. I have a lot of help certainly on the show. We have a wonderful costumer, Lisa Eisler, and she’s worked a lot with Marina Rinaldi. They have beautiful suits for women and that’s what I’ve been - I’ve chosen to wear this year for Harry. And so I have a lot of help in that I have somebody to go and shop for me. I don’t have to go shop for the show. And I have wonderful makeup and hair people, Kelly Kline, and Jori Jenae Murray. She does the makeup for the show and she’s very conscious about skin care. And at the end of every day she cleans all the makeup off and sort of gives me a mini-facial and gives me products to use at home to keep my face soft and supple and because it gets a lot of wear and tear on the set. And so - and the first question is, yes, I guess I do think about aging certainly as I get older. And I’m happy that the show requires me to walk a lot. It forces me to get a lot of exercise whether I want to or not so that’s a good thing. So, yes, I do think about getting older. There are things that I can’t do as well as I used to and but being a cancer survivor I’m just really glad to be here. I guess that’s the bottom line.
Can you give us a sneak preview of what we can look forward to whether it be guest stars or maybe some plot twists or interesting cases that Harry might be taking on?
Yes, absolutely. The first three episodes actually are - involve a murder case. Alfred Molina, wonderful actor of stage and screen, is - plays a man who has been accused of murdering his wife. And Jean Smart who is the DA or who is prosecuting him is one of our guest stars. And there are a lot of twists and turns in that case over the first three episodes. Also Paul McCrane who was the district attorney last year, he’s going to be back this year. He’s directing Episode 4. And it’s a very interesting case about a young woman who’s been charged with homicide because she outed a girl at high school for being gay on her blog. And it’s a very timely subject. The girl committed suicide and so the young blogger is being charged with her homicide. So that’s one of the cases that I found really interesting this season.
Has making this show changed in any way your personal perception of lawyers or the legal profession?
Well, it certainly has been a wonderful pretend for me. You know, my mother, God rest her, born in 1907, wanted to be a lawyer and I think there were so very few choices available to her when she was coming along. And when I got the script for Harry’s Law I thought about my mother and I thought, “Well, you know, this is I guess as close as she’ll get.” And it’s a bit of a nostalgic trip for me at times imagining what kind of lawyer she would’ve been because she was awfully smart and blunt herself. And so I kind of feel like she’s the Harry Korn in my life.
Are you all done with The Office? Any chance we’ll see you back there at any point?
No, I’m all done. They’ve got James Spader now. I think they realized with my schedule with Harry it just wasn’t able to be there as much as I wanted to. So unfortunately I wasn’t able to do both.
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Harry's Law premieres Wednesday, September 21 at 9.00 et/pt.