“Matlock” star Skye P. Marshall is opening up about the moment she landed the role in the CBS legal drama series and how she made a career transition.
Marshall plays attorney Olympia Lawrence in the series. In an interview with “CBS Mornings,” Marshall said she was at the dentist and caregiving for her mother when she received a call.
“I just needed to get out of the dentist’s office,” she said. “I knew the moment I called that number back … my entire life was going to change,” said Marshall, who said she “sprinted up and down the sidewalk” after hearing the news.
Marshall said she has always had a passion for performing.
“I was a 5-year-old in a tutu and recitals, to performing arts, to dance ensemble.”
But she said she never thought it could be her career.
“Just because you’re going to the gym doesn’t mean you’re going to be a personal trainer. …In my household, it was just an artistic escape, and I used it as my therapy.”
Marshall is a military veteran. She also spent time working in the corporate world in the pharmaceutical industry.
But she remembers the moment when she decided she needed to make a change, saying, “I just saw 12-year-old version Skye sitting on my desk, kicking the file cabinet, mad at me, like, ‘This is not what I asked for.’ In that moment of just daydreaming, I knew it. I was like, ‘You’re absolutely right.'”
Marshall’s character is the boss of Madeline “Matty” Matlock, played by Kathy Bates. Marshall said she put Bates “on a pedestal,” but soon learned that Bates “just wants to receive the authentic version of who you are.”
“She is my biggest cheerleader but also one of the most extraordinary teachers I have ever had in my school,” Marshall said.
Recently on the show, Lawrence realized that Matlock has been keeping a big secret from her.
“I knew the moment that I was lucky enough to have a chemistry read with Kathy Bates. As soon as I walked in the room, without even thinking, I did the cardinal rule, I broke it. That is like, you don’t touch the talent,” Marshall said. “I came into the room and I just looked at her. I was like, ‘Can I hug you?’ … She walked right into my arms and she hasn’t left.”
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/skye-p-marshall-matlock-kathy-bates/
