When it comes to describing his onetime co-star Kathy Bates , Sam Rockwell doesn’t hold back. “She’s a badass motherfucker,” he says about his time working with her on Clint Eastwood’s “Richard Jewell.” “It was nothing short of extraordinary. She’s a beast; she’s an animal. She’s an assassin. She’s a baller! Marvel and DC should make her a fucking superhero — or supervillain!”

But as we sit in her “ Matlock ” dressing room on the Paramount lot, Bates is not quite feeling like a baller. It’s late in the evening after a long day of shooting an episode of the CBS drama’s upcoming second season, and Bates just came off struggling with a tongue twister of a line, which she unraveled with the help of her costar Skye Marshall.

“When I have to do the legalese, sometimes I get kind of turned

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