Interview: Skye P. Marshall on Bringing Olympia to Life For ‘Matlock’

Some characters leap off the screen and Olympia Lawrence, as played by the magnetic Skye P. Marshall is one of them. The actress has credits that include Indivisible, Good Sam, and Sundance darling To Live and Die and Live, but she’s seriously phenomenal as the powerhouse attorney in CBS’s Matlock. Paired with Kathy Bates in the titular role, Marshall has been such a treat to watch this season.

We recently had the opportunity to sit down with the scene-stealer over Zoom and it was such a wonderful conversation. The actress generously shared her journey to playing Olympia, including how she knew in her heart the character was meant for her. She had to fight for the role, going toe to toe with some of the best in the business. Watching Marshall as Olympia has been some of the best TV this past season. The actress opened up about making that magic and how it comes from being surrounded by amazing talent, including writers and actors, and having the freedom to stop acting and just feel. She talked about lessons Olympia has taught her as a person, including when it comes to difficult conversations. Read below for the full interview, including some exclusive reveals, and then go straight to CBS to watch the show if you haven’t already.

Ayla Ruby: I’m really excited to chat. The show’s delightful and Olympia is amazing, and just I know why I love her.

Skye P. Marshall: Oh, thank you.

Ayla Ruby: I’d love to hear what drew you to her, and more broadly the series too. You wouldn’t think Matlock needs a reboot, but once you start watching, yes.

Skye P. Marshall: Oh my gosh, yes, right? None of us knew that we needed it. The origin story was, when I decided to change career paths at 27 years old, I knew that coming out to LA, I’ll give you the longer version, but when I came out to LA I just wanted to be an actor, but I didn’t have any specificity.

Ayla Ruby: Okay.

Skye P. Marshall:

It wasn’t until I took Lesly Kahn, an extraordinary acting teacher, it wasn’t until I took her class where she had each student walk into the room full of other actors and all we could say is, “Hi, my name is Skye Marshall,” twice. After that, the actors in her class would just blurt out whatever they thought of you.

Ayla Ruby: Oh wow.

Skye P. Marshall: Right? A lot of them were like, “Oh, she looks like she can kick your ass,” or, “She looked like she could be military or a cop,” or, “She looks like she could be a power attorney or a DA.” I was just interesting. Then Lesly Kahn held up my beautiful glamorous headshot, and she was just like, “Does this photo look like any of the descriptions they just said?” I was like, “No, it does not.” She was like, “So why do I have this headshot?” I was just like, “That’s a great question.” From that moment, I had to get really specific about, I can’t just want to work, I need to be more specific as to who I want to play. I built my first vision board specifically for acting, and it was CBS procedural drama.

Skye P. Marshall: I knew that CBS was the best network and so I wanted to be on the best network. I also wanted to do procedurals because I grew up watching Law and Orders and NCISs and Grey’s Anatomy. I just knew that that was a good fit for me with my military background, my six years of working in a hospital background, and then my corporate background. My life experience was my core and once I built that vision, then I was able to be more specific on which auditions I wanted to take, which is not easy when you’re barely getting auditions.

Ayla Ruby: No.

Skye P. Marshall: That was the hard part, was having to pass on things even though I was a cater waiter, even though I didn’t have any credits, but I had to just slowly learn time that the more specific I was, the closer I was going to get to my goal. When I got my first opportunity to book a series regular role, it was a medical drama. When I went in for my first audition for that medical drama, our showrunner, Katie Wech, was someone I had met previously guest starring. In that room, Jennie Snyder Urman and Joanna Klein were there, who are the Matlock executive producers, and Jennie is the showrunner, right?

Skye P. Marshall: That connected me from playing a doctor to playing the lawyer. The way I found out about Matlock, because it was not pitched to me, I did not get a pitch for that, I was scrolling through my social media and I saw CBS, Matlock, Kathy Bates, and I was like, say less. I didn’t even open the article honestly. I just went straight to my manager and was like, “Can you please get me this script? I just want to see if anything is in there for me.” There was nothing on the breakdown yet where the casting directors post the other characters. All we knew was Kathy Bates. I got the script, I flipped past the first page and just dived right in. I didn’t even see who wrote it yet.

Skye P. Marshall: I just wanted to see is there anything in here because I would die to work with Kathy Bates, and it’s my wheelhouse, CBS.

Skye P. Marshall: I saw that and I read the script, and as soon as I got to Olympia, I had a physical response to it.

Ayla Ruby: Yeah.

Skye P. Marshall: I felt sick because I knew that I was about to obsess over this character, which is really rare. I’ll like a character or, oh, that’ll be a fun audition, or I just really want to read for that casting director, right?

Skye P. Marshall: But this was like, oh no, I feel this in my body. This is a spiritual awakening in me of something else that I haven’t felt before. I didn’t know what to do. I just was like, ah, man, screw it and I recorded myself pleading for an audition. I sent that to the powers that be and that’s how I got my audition. That was the first of four auditions. It wasn’t like a straight to producers or straight to Kathy. I still had to go through the ranks. I’m so grateful that I sent that video because sometimes people don’t know what you want to fight for until you tell them. I told them, I was like, “Put me in the ring.” I already saw the short list of some incredible actresses that the studio had pitched, and I was like, “I’ll go toe to toe with them. Just put me in the ring.” I know in my heart that Olympia is meant for me to play.

Ayla Ruby: Mm-hmm. I agree with that.

Skye P. Marshall: They were like, “Well, come on in.” That was a long-winded version, but there was a lot of detail in there I haven’t shared with anyone else, and I just want to give you some other pearls.

Ayla Ruby: I appreciate that. That’s fantastic. I think that tracks, that works so well with Olympia as a character too.

Skye P. Marshall: That’s the thing too, just like this is, yeah, it’s really strange. It’s like playing Olympia or is Olympia displaying who Skye really is on a massive platform? The line is blurred because I’ve been playing Olympia in ways that I haven’t really sat down to challenge myself with, and the writing just does it for me.

Skye P. Marshall: What you see on the screen, a lot of it is me processing events that were happening in my life personally, and I would hijack the character and emotionally free myself of it, whether it was anger, fear, frustrations, or despair. I was feeling all of those in my personal life. Had I not been able to play Olympia, I probably would have shoved it down and just been, “I’m fine.”

Ayla Ruby: As a person and as an actress that has to, how do you deal with that? How do you channel that into this fictional person? How do you prepare for that? You have your life experiences, how do you do that?

Skye P. Marshall: Right. Yeah, no, that’s a great question. The best way of acting when you have such phenomenal writing like Jennie Snyder Urman and her team, and you’re surrounded by such grounded and incredible actors, the best performance comes when you tell yourself to stop acting.

Skye P. Marshall: To stop acting. Say it, and think of something. Think of something that is familiar to you in this very instance, like in the finale, me charging up to Sarah to checkmate her for taking a client behind my back. Do you know how many times I’ve wanted to do that to people and I don’t? I think personally, I hold back so much because I care about what other people think of me.

Skye P. Marshall: Olympia gave me that freedom to be able to lead with grace and be able to be assertive without being disrespectful, be able to be confrontational, but also result oriented.

Skye P. Marshall: What she’s taught me is that there is a solution on the other side of the uncomfortable conversations, but personally, we have to have them. That’s what she’s taught me. The feelings that I’ve always felt that I’ve wanted to be able to generate in an uncomfortable conversation, I’ve been able to do that through the character or even the way that I’ve wanted to fight. Even right now, there’s so many issues going on in the world that I publicly want to fight, but I still hold this concern of perspective of it coming from me, right?

Skye P. Marshall: If they write it and I get to say it through Olympia, oh my gosh, please let me loose. It’s easier to hide behind the characters. It is, it is. There’s some fantastic monologues that we’ve seen even on our show where we get to speak that, especially with Kathy speaking about being invisible, right?

Skye P. Marshall: She wouldn’t be able to speak that as a celebrity. They’d be like, “What? We all see you. We all know you and we all love you and you’re incredible?” Who knows what we go through on the inside? When she’s able to speak what she actually feels like as Matty Matlock, being 76 years old and not wanting to go back to the garden and learning a new language, she doesn’t want to be invisible.

Skye P. Marshall: She wants to stand up for people that are being discriminated against or are not being cared for. I love that so much because I know when I see Kathy Bates say those lines, I know she means it. I know she’s not acting.

Ayla Ruby: Yep. That’s why I think all of it together is why the show is just so, it draws you in so much to watch.

Skye P. Marshall: Absolutely. Leah Lewis so desperately wanted to be able to get her time in the courtroom. After the first 17 episodes, she wasn’t sure if that was going to happen. It broke my heart for her as an actor because David Del Rio, he got to do it and crushed it. The courtroom is our black box theater. It’s the one space where everyone’s told to look directly at you.

Skye P. Marshall: All our extras usually have some kind of business. That’s the one space that you are actually delivering this incredible dialogue with an audience watching you.

Ayla Ruby: Oh.

Skye P. Marshall: It’s extremely challenging for me to walk in there and just do my job and get out of my head that the fact that these are other actors watching me, because I was a background actor for seven years into my thirties, up until I was 35. I know when I used to watch and I used to study and I used to learn from that space. I played in jury boxes as an extra. It’s just like I have to get out of my own head of not being performative and just staying true to the character and being okay with messing up in front of this audience. A lot of people don’t understand what that courtroom feeling feels like.

When Leah read the script of the finale and she saw that she was going to be in the court, she was following me and asking me a bunch of questions and any kind of advice. I’m just like, just literally how Olympia was telling her, “Just breathe and you got this and just focus on the client.” I had to do that with, not had to, I had the privilege of doing that with Leah Lewis that when we, no one else knows this either, when we had our final table read to read through the finale script right before Leah read her opening statement, she looked over at me at the table, and then she took a breath and then she started to read it. I burst into tears at the table read. Kathy sits next to me and she even looks over at me like, “What’s going on kid?”

Skye P. Marshall: I just could not keep myself together because I was just so proud of Leah.

Skye P. Marshall:

I was just so excited that she had this opportunity in the finale to just bring us home. She did a phenomenal job, but it felt like my mentee.

Ayla Ruby: Again, the parallels there.

Skye P. Marshall: So many. Yeah.

Ayla Ruby: We’ve talked about a couple of different things in the season. Whether it’s that moment in the finale, has there been anything else that’s kind of been your favorite so far? Or maybe that was the most challenging thing that you kind of had to dig into and bring to life?

Skye P. Marshall: Ooh. I would say for me, the most challenging, well, the one that I was the most scared of was episode seventeen of going toe to toe with Kathy Bates in my secret room.

Ayla Ruby: That was amazing.

Skye P. Marshall: Oh my gosh. I was just like, I get to trap Misery in a room. This is something that is going to probably settle all of my trauma from a kid watching that movie. That right there, that was going to be my moment of, for me personally, I was like, this is it. This is the themes is going toe to toe with Kathy Bates where the facade is down.

Ayla Ruby: The lies are revealed.

Skye P. Marshall: The version of her that I never got to act with the whole season that only revealed itself at the Kingston Estate.

Skye P. Marshall: I knew that I was now facing a con artist. I knew that I was now facing a villain in my story. Going into that, it didn’t matter that Olympia got to act with Matty Matlock for the first 16 episodes. This was my first time really going toe to toe with the depth and the range of the Kingston version that Kathy Bates had created.

Skye P. Marshall: I just had to tell myself just to ground myself, breathe and actively listen. When you are actively listening to someone who you’re sharing a scene with, suddenly the camera crew around you disappears and your body just starts to react naturally. I get that a lot from fans of Skye’s physical reactions say just as much as the dialogue coming out of her mouth. That’s because when you do that, you naturally, just the same way, watch the next time you have certain conversations with certain people, your body language starts to kick in.

Skye P. Marshall: We don’t just sit there and stare.

Skye P. Marshall: That was what I just told myself and coached myself through, but it was challenging leading up to that of just like, I now know this is not Madeline Matlock, because Jennie was so flawless at me not knowing that I knew that I was collecting all of the evidentiary support that she wasn’t who she said she was. When I realized it, I’m so glad I didn’t know in advance because I didn’t want to twist my mustache, “I am onto you.” When they hold these gems from us while filming, it allows us to just be as real as possible without anticipation.

Ayla Ruby: Can you talk about that a little bit more? You always hear about studios and keeping spoilers out of the press. How do you that when you’re trying not to reveal things to other actors and stuff, just for reaction purposes. How does that work when you’re on set and filming, I guess, if that makes sense?

Skye P. Marshall: Yeah. For instance, Yael knew that she was the one.

Skye P. Marshall: Jason knew that they hooked up. They did not tell me anything at all. For a while I’m like, “Who was it?” From the Christmas episode, they left me hanging and I just had to do my own investigative work. Boy did it kill me every day felt like a month. The same way my husband had no idea who stole the Wellbrexa documents. I’m usually not a safe space for these kinds of things, but the payoff of not saying anything is what you see on the screen. The payoff of the reactions that we gave, it was because we genuinely did not know until maybe a day or two prior to filming, which is when we do our table reads.

Skye P. Marshall: They don’t even want us sitting with it for too long.

Skye P. Marshall: During the airing, I’ve never been more excited about telling friends and family no, not even friends and family. I live in Brooklyn, New York. I have people wanting to pull me off the subway like, “Sis, please tell me it’s not you, it better not be you.” I’m like, “Ma’am, I can’t say anything, but I appreciate your enthusiasm.”

Ayla Ruby: Yeah.

Skye P. Marshall: I’m always on foot here in New York City. I’m literally on a ferry right now going to Manhattan. I make eye contact with a hundred people a day and it blows my mind the demo that we have, the range of audience members that we are lucky to grip their attention.

Skye P. Marshall: It’s been a thrill and an honor to be able to hold that secret because it’s like a new friendship with the city because people are just off the street giving me questions. It’s really for me to tell them the secret. It feels like I’ve just become even closer to New York.

Ayla Ruby: Well, I’m invested and the season finale is killing me. I won’t ask you to reveal anything because I don’t know if you know anything about it.

Skye P. Marshall: I don’t know anything. I know nothing. They tell us absolutely nothing. I know nothing about 201 and that stresses me out. I’m like, “Just tell me, did she shred it? Did she not shred it? Just tell me. Please just tell me.” They’re like, “We’re not telling you anything.” I’m like, “Touché.”

Ayla Ruby: That final scene, how do you prepare for that scene? The moment where there’s a safety deposit box, and like you said, she’s with her ex-husband, she’s deciding whether or not to shred the documents.

Skye P. Marshall: Yeah, that was rough. That was rough. I never saw the Wellbrexa document until I had to lift the lid off of that safety deposit box.

Ayla Ruby: And your reaction is?

Skye P. Marshall: The reaction of me, I felt myself get emotional as soon as..it’s exactly what they used. Even me covering my mouth. I had not actually seen it. Here’s the thing too. When you think about the time spent seven months of filming, very long days, we become just as committed to the character of discovery, of getting to the discovery. We don’t know what it’s going to look like or how it’s going to happen. That is the value of keeping things private from actors and from press, is because the payoff is just so worth it and it has to be protected.

Ayla Ruby: I completely agree on that. It’s just the last episode, I mean all the episodes, but the last episode, those final couple moments were delightful.

Skye P. Marshall: Then Kat Coiro, Kat Coiro, who’s directed almost half of our episodes, she’s absolutely fantastic. Having her dressed as Denise in the finale, the banker, that’s our director Kat.

Ayla Ruby: Oh, I didn’t even realize that.

Skye P. Marshall: Yeah.

Ayla Ruby: Now I’m putting it together.

Skye P. Marshall: Yeah. It was so wild to do a scene with someone who I’ve leaned on heavily throughout the season of keeping everything consistent, intact with the vision of my character Olympia, and not letting the lines get blurred because of how Skye might react.

Ayla Ruby: Yeah.

Skye P. Marshall: She’s like, “Yeah, you might scream and yell at Shae, but Olympia won’t so you need to just trust that we know where this character’s going.” I’m like, “You’re right.” To be able to even spar with Kat in the bank and act with her, she’s so fantastic and so phenomenal. Even in the moment she was like, “Oh yeah, you make this look easy. This is not easy at all.” I’m like, “No, no, it’s not it. It absolutely isn’t.”

Then for her to be there to help facilitate the rehearsal between Jason and I in that final scene, Jason and I didn’t really know how we were going to go into it. We also didn’t want to over-rehearse it because we wanted all of the feelings to just come up with each other because he’s such a great supportive actor and a fantastic listener. I had mastered the listening throughout season one. It was something that I actively wanted to pay attention to because I saw that he and Kathy were really great at their physicality, and I wanted to lean more into that myself and trust that who I am, the seasoning that I might put on this dish is going to be different than theirs. Even last night, I don’t know if you remember the scene, when we thought we got good news about Sarah’s case, and then she takes out her phone and she’s like, “Should I pretend?” I was like, “Girl,” and I hit her phone, I improvised that.

Ayla Ruby: Oh really?

Skye P. Marshall: They allow us to add little pieces of who we are, and it might make the cut, it might not, it doesn’t matter. We just kind of give them a little bit of like, yes, Olympia would stand here, but Skye would be like, “Girl, if you don’t just answer the phone.” Then you just kind see if those worlds collide. It’s so beautiful when they do and I don’t know until they cut it and I watch it on TV.

Ayla Ruby: Oh, that’s fantastic. I know we’re just about at time, but is there anything else you want people to know about the show or your work or anything? Anything about you?

Skye P. Marshall: Oh, that’s sweet. I have a film that’s coming out called To Live and Die and Live.

Ayla Ruby: Okay.

Skye P. Marshall: May 16 in select theaters. We got a standing ovation at Sundance in 2023.

Ayla Ruby: Congratulations.

Skye P. Marshall: Thank you. I play a character Asia, and she is the opposite of what everyone is familiar with, with the Olympia character. It’s gritty, it’s indie, it’s dark, and it’s beautiful. Outside of that, I am in constant contact with Kathy and she texted me last night just raving about what she had. This mountain top that me, Kathy, and the cast and our writers and our directors, it takes a village.

Skye P. Marshall: We had the best catering team in the industry. Here’s the thing, if they didn’t fuel us with that nutrition, we wouldn’t have been able to be running up and down those hallways.

Ayla Ruby: No fruit snacks

Skye P. Marshall: No fruit snacks. Hey, then look, our energy, our personalities are gone. Every job makes the world go around. When people comment and give us grace around the amazing production, know that it was a village. I just can’t wait for everyone to get recognized for their work and their contribution to Matlock. We have the best studio executives as well. The whole family is what created this, not just the actors. This was a well-oiled run machine. In season two, now that we are all in the pocket and that chemistry is locked and loaded and we have such incredible feedback, thanks to amazing journalists like you, season two is going to blow your minds. I’m pretty sure I’m going to try and get some things out of Jennie Snyder Urman. I’ll probably have to pour a few glasses of wine first, but I cannot wait.

Ayla Ruby: Distract her.

Skye P. Marshall: Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Oh yeah, absolutely. Directing in season three is my goal.

Ayla Ruby: Oh, that’s fantastic.

Skye P. Marshall: Yeah.

Ayla Ruby: I’ll have to chat back again with you because I would love to hear how your perspective shifts, if it shifts with that.

Skye P. Marshall: Anytime.

Ayla Ruby: Thank you very much. This has been wonderful.

Skye P. Marshall: Thank you.