Revisit James Caan's reunion with Misery costar Kathy Bates

Entertainment Weekly reunited Misery stars James Caan and Kathy Bates to celebrate the film's 25th anniversary in our October 16, 2015, special reunion issue. We are sharing it again now following news of Caan's death at 82.

Misery loves company, and Kathy Bates and James Caan sure seem to be enjoying each other's. It's almost hard to get them to stop chatting long enough to take a photo. Twenty-five years ago, the two starred in the snowbound thriller about a novelist convalescing under the too-intensive care of his No. 1 fan. The movie, directed by Rob Reiner and adapted by William Goldman from Stephen King's 1987 novel, won Bates an Oscar, and added the gruesome "hobbling" scene to audiences' mental file of unforgettable movie moments.

It was also essentially a two-hander. With the exception of a few scenes featuring actors like Lauren Bacall and Richard Farnsworth, the movie rests entirely on the shoulders of its two stars, as Annie Wilkes' mania goes from a simmer to a rolling boil. She broke his ankles, and he bashed her head in, but seeing them now, it's clear bygones are bygones. "It was a great experience for me, being my first big film," says Bates. Caan smirks, chiming in, "I just didn't like when you kicked me in the gonads, like, every other day." Well, most bygones. "Hey, you asked for it," she says.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Did you two meet on Misery?

KATHY BATES: Yes, we did.

JAMES CAAN: We had a very funny situation in that Kathy — as she would, because she had all the stuff to do — liked to rehearse, and I didn't want to rehearse.

BATES: I came from stage. I had just been doing 'night, Mother, and I had a crush on the camera guy, the camera operator, so anytime Jimmy didn't want to rehearse, I was more than happy.

I imagine seeing her with a sledgehammer brings back a lot of warm memories.

BATES: That took a long f---ing time because, you know, then they didn't have all the CGI stuff... Your legs were down through the mattress, right?

CAAN: No, those were my legs. You hit those legs.

BATES: No, I did not... It had to be pulled at exactly the right time when I was hitting the ankle, and sometimes the filament would break, and I was like, "Oy." It was crazy.

CAAN: Yeah, and because of that, I heard, maybe a hundred thousand times, "How are your legs, Jimmy?"

BATES: I decided when I die, it's going to be Kathy "Misery" Bates. You know how they do, in People magazine, it'll be "Kathy 'Misery' Bates passed away."

When Misery came around, Kathy, you hadn't done a lot of movies, and Jimmy, you were coming off of a hiatus.

BATES: I hadn't done anything.

CAAN: The hiatus, yeah. I guess that's what it was. I had a bad bout for a little while. I was sitting on top, so of course, I wanted to make sure I took care of that.

BATES: I mean, this is, like, the worst person to ask to lie in bed.

CAAN: I think that was really clever of Rob. He gave me the job even though, you know, I had a bad period there... and I said to Rob, "You've got the most neurotic guy in Hollywood, and putting him in bed for 15 weeks." Every morning, I don't know if you remember, he'd go, "Today, Jimmy, you can get in bed."

BATES: Yeah, "Let's do that scene in the bed."... Remember how excited you were when we got to go to the dining room?... We had a great time. It was my first big movie, and so they gave me a trailer of my own, and I went in it, and then when I came out I fell off the steps and twisted my ankle.

CAAN: It's hard. You know, it's just two of us, pretty much, for 15 weeks.

BATES: And the pig.

CAAN: And the pig.

BATES: The pig fell down the steps. Our set was up high, so you had to go up the steps to get there, and they turned the lights off before she got down, and she fell, and it was hell to get her back up there. Pigs are f---ing smart, man... She loved doughnuts. There's nothing quite like doughnuts in a pig's breath.

CAAN: You know what the funny thing about Bill Goldman, who I think is a genius — you know, if you look at the book, if you read the book, he combed all of the violence out of it.

BATES: The fight.

CAAN: Oh, the fight. Yeah. Yeah, but I mean in the book, you cut [one of my legs] off. You put the sheriff in the Lawn-Boy.

BATES: Yeah. I wanted to run over him with the Lawn-Boy, but Rob said he thought that would be too funny, and he didn't do that. He wanted it to be serious, psychological... I liked the way it started, at the beginning, because I think the first word you heard that was kind of off was oogy. She's going out the door and she said, "Oh, I don't want to make you feel all oogy," and the door closes, and he's like, "Oh, f---. What is that?"

CAAN: You dirty bird.

BATES: But that's Stephen. I was telling Jimmy, I did, like, a tiny, tiny part on The Stand. We were shooting in Utah, and we were talking, and there was a desk there, and he reached in his pocket, pulled out a rubber rat, and threw it at me.

MSDMISE EC002 — Kathy Bates in 'Misery'. Everett Collection

He just recently received the National Medal of Arts.

BATES: That is so great. I'm just reading Mr. Mercedes.

You did Dolores Claiborne, too, after Misery.

BATES: Yeah. I loved that. Oh, and tell him the story about when Stephen saw the movie.

CAAN: We had the screening in Westwood, and he was sitting in the back with Rob. He really never came to any of his movies. He didn't like his movies. He got so into it that...when she comes in at the end, with the tray, it's dead quiet... and you hear, "Watch out. She's got a gun!" And it was Stephen.

That's a perfect endorsement.

CAAN: By the way, that was one of the most painful shoots... Do you remember the shot when you pushed the wheelchair to go back into that glass, and I push myself forward and jump on you, when we get into that fight?... So they said, "Jimmy, you know, you don't have to go too hard, because the real glass is behind it." Of course, I oversold it again, boom, and I went into that glass, and on the wheelchair, they had an air gun. And they really fired that sucker, because it had to throw me, you know. But they never put a seat clamp on it, so it slipped out, and it hit me right above the tailbone.

This movie is appropriately titled. You got hurt, you got hurt, the pig got hurt.

CAAN: All of God's children got hurt.

BATES: When he slammed my head into the floor and started shoving the paper in my mouth, that was bad. When we got through with that, I just went off stage and burst into tears. It was just awful.

CAAN: That's the best thing about Kathy, because she's playing this insanely brutal woman — she was like this little prairie flower. She got all upset when it got violent.

BATES: F---you. It hurt.

Did you take any souvenirs from the set?

BATES: He's got the typewriter.

CAAN: I have the typewriter.

BATES: I think I have the sledgehammer. I think.

CAAN: You want to trade?

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