Kathy Batesisone of the most versatile supporting playersaround. She walks into scenes like she already owns the truth of the moment, whether she’s breaking your heart, terrifying you, or delivering a monologue so sharp it feels like a confession and a threat all at once. Her career is packed with scene-stealing side characters (and a few full-throttle leads).
Somehow, Bates always brings a touch of unpredictability to even the most grounded roles. With this in mind,the following ten films showcase what she does best: command the screen. Sometimes she plays loud, sometimes quiet, but she always leaves something behind—a glance, a line, a feeling that hits harder than you expected.
10’The Highwaymen' (2019)
Directed by John Lee Hancock
“There’s no shame in looking for peace.” This one flew under the radar a bit.The Highwaymenisn’t flashy. It’sa slow, moody crime dramaabout the men who tracked downBonnieandClyde. But it’s also about the people left behind. Bates playsMiriam “Ma” Ferguson, the no-nonsense Texas governor who gives the former rangers their marching orders.She’s not in every scene, but every time she’s on screen, she reminds you who’s really pulling the strings.
She’s playing a politician who knows the score—and knows how to stay in power. Bates brings a weathered authority to the role. She’s fittingly gravel-voiced, sardonic, and deeply practical. You can feel the weight of decades in her delivery. In a film dominated by aging men wrestling with violence and justice, her presence gives it spine. The movie itself is quiet and deliberate, falling short of its potential and winding up less entertaining than it could have been, but Bates is always compelling.
The Highwaymen
9’Primary Colors' (1998)
Directed by Mike Nichols
“You don’t watch me like you’re watching history being made. You watch me like you watch a car wreck.” Here’s Bates in full force. InPrimary Colors,a razor-sharp Clinton-era political satire, she plays Libby Holden, a fiercely loyal, deeply wounded political fixer who’s part cheerleader, part moral compass, part landmine.Bates takes a role that could’ve been background noise and turns it into the emotional core of the film.
She’s hilarious one moment, heartbroken the next. That’s what makes her dangerous - and her performance devastating. It’s one of Bates' richest turns—layered, flawed, explosive. And she earned an Oscar nomination for it, deservedly so. In a film filled with slick politicians and moral ambiguity, she’s the one character who actually bleeds. And she does it in front of everyone. The movie isn’t quite as good as the novel (which still feels ahead of its time) but political junkies will still enjoy it.
Primary Colors
8’Fried Green Tomatoes' (1991)
Directed by Jon Avnet
“Face it, girls. I’m older and I have more insurance.” This film is full of memory, mystery, and deep-fried melancholy, but Bates is the spark that brings it to life in the present. She plays Evelyn Couch, a timid, unhappily married woman who stumbles into a Southern nursing home and meets Ninny Threadgoode (Jessica Tandy), an old woman with stories that wake something sleeping inside her.Bates doesn’t come in with fire; she simmers.And then, slowly, scene by scene, Evelyn starts changing.
Gaining confidence. Getting angry. Throwing things. Screaming in parking lots. And you root for her because Bates makes Evelyn’s arc feel earned—never cartoonish, never overplayed. Just a woman growing claws after years of shrinking herself. It’s one of her warmest performances, and still one of the most cathartic. And yeah, the food scenes are iconic. But it’s Bates slamming her car into a younger woman’s and yelling “Tawanda!” that sticks with you.
Fried Green Tomatoes
7’The Late Shift' (1996)
Directed by Betty Thomas
“You don’t get the Tonight Show without making a few enemies.” Based on the behind-the-scenes war overThe Tonight Show,particularly the conflict betweenJay Leno(Daniel Roebuck) andDavid Letterman(John Michael Higgins), this HBO movie might’ve vanished into the TV movie ether if not for Bates. She playsHelen Kushnick, Leno’s ferocious, take-no-prisoners manager, and she tears through every boardroom scene like a lawyer crossed with a wrecking ball.There’s nothing subtle about this role, but Bates doesn’tneedsubtlety here.
She leans into the messiness, the ambition, the unapologetic fire. And yet she makes Kushnick oddly sympathetic, even at her worst. You believe she’s doing all this not just for money, but for survival. It’s not a prestige film. It doesn’t pretend to be. But Bates is so good that she walked away with an Emmy. The way she says “network weasels” like it’s a slur? Worth the price of admission alone.
The Late Shift
6’Titanic' (1997)
Directed by James Cameron
“You’re gonna cut her meat for her too, Cal?” Amid all the chaos, tragedy, and swooning romance ofTitanic, Bates turns in a quiet, more human performance. She has a supporting part asMolly Brown, based on the real-life “Unsinkable” socialite who was looked down on by other first-class passengers but whose tenacity ensured she survived the disaster.There’s warmth in her, but also steel. She doesn’t just play comic relief—she plays conscience.Molly’s the one rich person on the boat who doesn’t treat Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) like garbage.
We get the sense that Molly sees people clearly. And when the lifeboats start lowering, she’s the one whowantsto go back. In other words, Bates brings a groundedness to the spectacle. In a movie filled withfictional drama and real tragedy, she bridges the gap. It’s a supporting role, sure, but it’s also one of the reasonsTitanicholds up. Because someone had to play the grown-up in the room. And who better than her?
Directed by Sam Mendes
“If you wanted to play house, you should have moved to the suburbs." In contrast toTitanic, this portrait of suburban despair features Leonardo DiCaprio andKate Winsletnot as star-crossed lovers but as a married couple slowly suffocating under the weight of their own expectations. Bates holds her own among this cast of heavy hitters (Kathryn HahnandMichael Shannonalso appear) as Helen Givings, a realtor with polished manners and razor teeth.Her character floats in and out, but every visit brings tension.
There’s a scene where she tours the house and delivers a monologue that feels innocent… until it suddenly doesn’t. Bates doesn’t have a ton of screen time, but she doesn’t need it. The movie is about masks and repression, and Bates plays someone who enforces those masks while secretly questioning them. She adds just the right note of social menace to keep the whole thing vibrating. It’s a subtle performance where every syllable matters.
Revolutionary Road
4’Dolores Claiborne' (1995)
Directed by Taylor Hackford
“Sometimes, being a bitch is all a woman has to hold on to.” This one’s brutal. Bates has top billing as the title character, a hard-edged housekeeper in a small coastal town accused of murdering her wealthy employer. As the story unfolds, through memories, confessions, and buried trauma, we learn about Dolores’s past, her daughter, and the years of abuse she’s endured. An interesting tension emerges: Dolores is suspected of a crime she did not commit while getting away scott-free for one she did.
There’s no camp in this performance. No exaggeration. Just pain, fury, and dignity.You believe her completely, you fear her a little, and you understand her. The film, adapted from aStephen Kingnovel, could’ve gone melodramatic. But Bates keeps it anchored in real scars. She carries the weight of survival like a boulder on her back. It’s not an easy watch. But it’s a reminder that when Bates goes all in—emotionally, physically—she doesn’t blink.
Dolores Claiborne
3’About Schmidt' (2002)
Directed by Alexander Payne
“I think I’m pretty much finished with men.” Everyone remembers the hot tub scene. And yes, Bates bares all in it—literally. But it’s what she does with that scene that matters. In this earlyAlexander Paynegem, she plays Roberta, the brash, free-spirited mother ofJack Nicholson’s future daughter-in-law, and she’s a full-force personality.In a film about repression and small gestures, Bates explodes like a firework.She more than holds her own against a typically stellar Nicholson.
She’s unfiltered, inappropriate, alive. And you can see how she both terrifies and fascinates Nicholson’s buttoned-up character. Bates walks the line between ridiculous and sublime. She makes Roberta feel real, not like a caricature. And that hot tub moment? It’s not about shock. It’s about comfort. About someone being fully themselves in a world full of people pretending. It’s a small role, but Bates makes it seismic. She reminds us that being too much is better than being empty.
About Schmidt
2’Richard Jewell' (2019)
Directed by Clint Eastwood
“My son is a hero. He saved people’s lives.” Here’s Bates at her quietest, and maybe most devastating. In this sturdy late-career drama fromClint Eastwood, she playsBobi Jewell, the mother of security guardRichard Jewell(Paul Walter Hauser), who was wrongly accused of bombing the 1996 Olympics. Her son is odd, earnest, and entirely unprepared for the media storm. And Bobi? She’s just trying to hold him together.Bates doesn’t raise her voice much here.
But the pain is in her eyes, in her hands, in the way she pleads with the world to justlisten. There’s one scene where she gives a press conference, defending her son, and it’s so raw it practically cracks open the movie. This isn’t a flashy performance; it’s lived-in, maternal, exhausted. And it earned Bates yet another Oscar nomination. IfAbout Schmidtproved she could play loud,Richard Jewellshows how powerful she can be when she barely moves.
1’Misery' (1990)
Directed by Rob Reiner
“I am your number one fan.” This is the one, the role that changed everything. Bates plays Annie Wilkes, a sweet-faced superfan who rescues her favorite author (James Caan) from a car crash… and then slowly reveals she’s unhinged. It’s a performance of chilling contradictions: cheerful and cruel, childlike and sadistic, always on the edge of something you can’t name.Bates makes Annie real. That’s what makes it terrifying.
She’s not a slasher villain. She’s a nurse with rules, a reader with expectations, a woman with wounds so deep she doesn’t even notice the blood anymore. The hobbling scene is infamous, but it’s the scenes before and after that stay with you. The way she smiles. The way she snaps. The way she loves too much.It won her an Oscar, of course. But more than that, it gave us a new kind of horror icon: one who doesn’t wear a mask. Just a cardigan, and a smile you’ll never forget.
