Matlock is a whole new take on the classic courtroom drama. First of all, the new Matlock is Kathy Bates as Maddie Matlock. The second is that it takes place in a world where the Andy Griffith Show exists. The third is a spoiler.
One of the new characters Maddie meets at her new law firm is Olympia (Skye P. Marshall). Olympia is a bit of a foil to Maddie, or vice versa, since the firm forces Olympia to let Maddie consult on her cases.
The Television Critics Association visited the set of Matlock this summer. In Olympia’s office, Marshall spoke to press about her character. Matlock airs Sundays at 8pm ET/PT on CBS.
Were there hints in the pilot that Olympia is not always going to be the ballbuster?
Skye P. Marshall: “Oh absolutely. Olympia reminds me of myself. Like you said, definitely ballbuster, rainmaker, power player, but there’s always a crack in the castle wall. She holds her cards to her chest. She doesn’t trust easily because the journey of getting to this kind of office wasn’t simple. So, you keep your circle small and you’re very intentional on who you connect with and why.
And then Madeline Matlock just comes right in without having to do any of the internal groundwork to come up the chain of command and now she’s assigned to me? I’m already busy. I already have enough to deal with. But, because of that nurturing side of Matlock, because of her experience, she has this way of bringing this feminine energy into such a masculine environment of bust, bust, bust. Like you said, you have to bring ball-busting energy here. She finds a way to soften Olympia where we can still find our power in being a woman and win with subtleties and secrecies and you’re innocent until proven guilty, as a friend and an employee and not just like what do you want? Are you trying to take my position?”
Was there a big learning curve with the performance in a courtroom?
Skye P. Marshall: “Oh my goodness, yes. So, every episode we have like one full day of courtroom scenes. It is the scariest day of every episode for me, honestly, because most scenes, the extras are told to just have some business, mime, do what you will. But when I walk in a courtroom, everyone’s told to stare directly at me. I call it my black box theater.
There’s a bit of showmanship that you have to do when you’re in the courtroom vs how Olympia is here. So, every time I walk down those courtroom hallways, I have to just get myself in the game like it’s theater again. The jury box, the gallery, the judge, whoever I’m crossing, they’re just staring at me. I have to tell myself they’re not watching me act. They actually want to hear what is this case about. So, I actually have to earn it from our background actors and make sure I project. So, I have projection, pace, and enunciation. That’s what I always have to make sure I focus on.”
Do you feel like lawyers are wannabe actors?
Skye P. Marshall: “For sure. It is. It’s theatrical, that space. Then you have your audience, and you have to convince a box of civilians to believe your story. So yes, it does take you to come outside of yourself and fight. But it’s like how can we fight and be believable for someone else’s life without being so aggressive all the time? I think Matlock helps in that case of being more strategic. Don’t get it twisted. Olympia never loses her bite. She is a shark.”
How comfortable do you feel in this room? Did you add any of your own photos?
Skye P. Marshall: “I’m still trying to figure out who this African family is. The cat gotta go. The cat is cute. I’m still working on that. I have a rescue dog. If I put her picture in there, it might stimulate emotions. You want to place things that can stimulate emotions that if I have a scene that requires some tears, I can just clock it for a second and feel a thing. That is something that can be personalized.
The biggest personal connection that I have to this set is that this is my second series regular. My first series regular right before this was a medical drama called Good Sam with Sophia Bush and Jason Isaacs. When we filmed that season, I was heavy in like my manifestation work. I was three on the call sheet, but I was watching Sophia and Jason, and I was like, ‘I can do this.’ But my deserving feelings hadn’t linked up with that yet because it was my first series regular.
I would walk up and down the stairs, and I would rub the poles on the stairs before we start filming, and I would have to chase Jason and Sophia all over the hallways. This being my second series regular, those are the same stairs. These are the same hallways. They shipped it from Toronto when Good Sam got canceled. I had no idea that the set would follow me here. This was my patient room. That was a patient’s room. Those were patient rooms over there. This same bend, I used to chase Sophia Bush all the time and now Kathy Bates is chasing me. How did I pull that off? It is the most personal experience that I’ve ever had for the set to follow me here. It just consistently reminds me of my belief system and how I saw it and I felt it before I arrived. Good Sam is where I met Jenny Snyder Urman and Joanna Karn.”
Have you gotten used to going toe-to-toe with Academy Award winner Kathy Bates every week?
Skye P. Marshall: “Luckily, yes, I’ve gotten used to it now. The first, I’d say, two episodes, I had to just kind of like shake it off. But Kathy does not believe that she’s more important than the PA, and I mean that genuinely. She doesn’t feel or see herself the way that we do. And so, she’s like, ‘Can we run lines? Is it okay if we rehearse?’ Or she’s like, ‘Oh, you’re so good.’ And I’m like, ‘Kettle to the pot, babe.’
It’s never been easier for me to cry on cue with Kathy because when she delivers those lines in emotional scenes, all I have to do is just listen and just make eye contact, and you feel it because she does not just throw any lines away. The way she delivers it, it’s watching someone make these words on the page really puncture your heart. I feel it every time and I can cry take after take after take.”
Do you see the wardrobe as Olympia’s uniform?
Skye P. Marshall: “Armor. Which is why you won’t see Olympia in a skirt or a dress. She chooses pants. She chooses darker colors. Blunt cut. You gotta play that game and even as I work through the scripts and I see clientele that she chooses, she’s very specific. It’s majority diversity. She chooses clients that can’t afford her level of agency but then she can get paid from class action. So, I think that’s what makes Matlock also extremely unique is that she’s very intentional on her clients but can still bring in the money. That, I haven’t seen before with a prestigious firm like Jacobson Moore.”
This post was last modified on October 22, 2024 4:31 pm