When Skye P. Marshall initially watched Matlock, she had no interest in the show because most young people run from the very thing their parents are amused by. Little did she know, she would one day join the beloved, classic television show’s new iteration after growing up to pursue acting.
Marshall’s introduction to Matlock included hearing the show from a distance when her parents tuned in on weekdays. Now, she has joined forces with Hollywood icon Kathy Bates to offer a fresh, exciting take on one of television’s beloved legal dramas.
“I was very familiar with the brand of Matlock, and I knew that it was the most successful legal procedural drama during its time,” she told Blavity’s Shadow and Act. “When I opened my phone one day while unemployed, I saw Deadline posted [in a] headline, “CBS, Matlock, Kathy Bates.” That was enough for me to hunt for this script, and I asked my manager, ‘Have you read the Matlock script? Can you get your hands on the Matlock script? I just want to see. One, is it great? Two, what is Kathy Bates up to, because I am a massive fan of Kathy Bates. And three, could there potentially be anything in the script for me? I’ll take anything.'”
How did Skye P. Marshall land the role?
After reviewing the script and stumbling upon her character, Olympia Lawrence, Marshall revealed that this role was made specifically for her.
“Suddenly, my stomach just dropped, my pulse started racing, and my palms got sweaty. My body knew that this was for me,” Marshall said. “Before I even got into the depth of the script, I was having a physical reaction to it. It was as if God was pinging me to pay attention. I received that physical reaction as nervousness — and I think we’ve been conditioned to believe that when our body feels this burning desire and starts to shake, we’ve been programmed to believe that that means we’re not ready, we’re incapable, we’re unprepared. Like when you’re about to do a big speaking engagement or go on a first date, we call it butterflies in our stomachs. It’s our body triggering to us that here is an opportunity to tap into our highest potential, and our body, that fear, is showing us that we’re ready to fight for something. It’s not really for flight.”
“At that moment, I was like, this is my body getting ready to fight for something, and I decided I was going to do whatever I possibly could to get an opportunity,” she added.
After filming a selfie video of herself and sending it to the show’s creator, Jennie Snyder Urman, it wasn’t long before Marshall landed an audition and a spot in the show as Bates’ right-hand woman. The moment was a dream come true for the actor, and the character Olympia is a testament to the power of representation for Black women like herself.
“As soon as I started to read the first episode script of Matlock, and I was introduced to this very well-written and complex character named Olympia Lawrence, I realized that Olympia is for the people,” Marshall said. “Olympia is for the culture. It’s not your usual high-end, prestigious law firm in New York City designed for the socialites and the millionaires who can afford her. She is very intentional about what clients she takes on, and as you will see throughout the season, most of her clientele are diverse clients who cannot afford her, but she can bring the money into the firm by settling a class action lawsuit. Seeing a lawyer on primetime television who is very intentional about who she represents — and why it’s the people who don’t have the big voices or the big wallets, it’s the people who have been victimized or have been mistreated at work or in relationships or have been wrongfully incarcerated, who the city wants to just throw a public defender at — she will step in and bring her high-end qualifications, her fancy law degree and the reputation of Jacobson Moore so that these people can get justice.”
This is not your original Matlock
While many call this a Matlock reboot, Marshall notes that it is a reimagination of the television show that has lived in the hearts of many since its premiere in 1986.
“We’re adding hope to this legacy,” Marshall said. “I think that is the most common emotion that we all feel as human beings. Hope. We hope that our kids turn out to be great. We hope that we have fought a good fight. We hope that we’re standing up for ourselves. We hope that we have created healthy boundaries. We hope that we don’t get hit by a car, right? On this show, the stakes are so high for every single character because we’re all hoping for something great. And our lead, Kathy Bates, playing Madeline Matlock hoping to get justice for her daughter, and that overarching mystery, is what the original Matlock didn’t have — but it’ll bring on the legacy of Matlock by showing how, just like Andy, Matlock consistently fights and will not stop until she wins.
“Matlock just takes it a little too far, way further than Andy Griffith ever did,” she continued. “But I think that’s the best part about reimagining the series and not rebooting it. We are reimagining it. And [once you watch], you will understand that Madeline is definitely not Matlock in the way we expect.”
Matlock currently airs Thursdays on CBS at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
