Kathy Bates and Rob Reiner celebrated the 35th anniversary of Misery this weekend with a screening and panel at the TCM Classic Film Festival, where Bates admitted her one regret from the movie. She said that she was disappointed that the movie was not as gory and violent as the original novel by Stephen King, and she blamed Reiner, the director, right to his face. The two discussed the specific changes on stage, and while Reiner defended his choices, Bates stood by her opinions as well. It was a friendly discussion and generally positive, as the two celebrated the movie’s legacy and its palpable impact on a crowd that very night, but it was clear this was a real divide.
Bates played Annie Wilkes in Misery — a violent, unstable superfan of author Paul Sheldon (James Caan), whom she is nursing back to health in her secluded mountain home after he was badly injured in a car crash. The violence of the movie is haunting enough, but it goes even further in the novel. Bates had read King’s book before filming, and she was looking forward to the scene where Annie runs someone over with a lawnmower, or the one where she amputates Paul’s foot.
“I was crushed that you took that out,” she told Reiner. The director addressed the narrative reason for removing the amputation in particular — in the movie, Annie breaks Paul’s ankles so that he can’t get away from her instead. He said that he felt the protagonist should not have to “lose something” so late in the story, after he had already learned a powerful lesson.
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“I didn’t agree with that at all,” Bates replied. Still, the actress had a lot of praise for Reiner in other areas, and for Caan and other colleagues from this movie. She recalled her own personal reaction to the finished film, saying she had no idea how eerie it would look once it was all put together. “I thought it was the end of my career. I was horrified,” she said.
In fact, Bates won an Academy Award for the performance, which was a shock to both her and Reiner. She recalled Reiner tempering her expectations, saying that a nomination was great but a horror movie role was unlikely to actually win the trophy. Smiling, she remembered Reiner’s response when they announced her as the winner — “You just stood up and went, ‘YEAH!’”
Meanwhile, Reiner brought up another issue from the production that caused some tension between Bates and Caan — their very different acting styles. “They come at acting in very different ways,” he said. “Kathy is a brilliant stage actress and Jimmy didn’t want any rehearsal, he just wanted to be instinctive. So we found a way to rehearse more than Jimmy wanted and less than Kathy wanted, but it works.”
Right now, Misery is not included on any subscription-based streaming services, but it is available to digitally rent or purchase on most major PVOD stores. It is also available on Blu-ray and DVD, and may be accessible physically or digitally through your local library.
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