‘Bates Motel’ Season 5 Spoilers: Freddie Highmore On Playing Mother Pretending To Be Norman

Freddie Highmore revealed that he had a great time playing Mother (Vera Farmiga) pretending to be Norman in the latter part of “Bates Motel” Season 5.

"As an actor it doesn’t get more fun than to play Norman, but with Mother taking over and pretending to be Norman,” Highmore shared during a recent interview with IGN. “So it’s this bizarre performance that has to be genuine enough to, some extent, convince Sheriff [Jane Greene (Brooke Smith], but also because it’s Mother who’s doing it there are those moments of humor that are almost winking at the audience that she can’t help sneak out. Where she wipes away a tear or brings another tear out or says things like ‘My mother was always right.’ She’s too clever for her own good. Finding a balance in all of these scenes was such great fun.”

READ: Will there be more deaths before “Bates Motel” Season 5 ends?

In Season 5, episode 8, Mother violently took over Norman to get him out of his legal troubles. And according to Highmore, Mother will continue to fight hard to free Norman from this mess in tonight’s Season 5, episode 9.

“I love the self-confidence that Mother has,” Highmore told Entertainment Weekly. “She knows how to manipulate people. She can trick them into believing her story. I found it very funny the idea that she is going as far as she can in terms of telling the story and trying to push people’s buttons and feeling like she’s on top of it and then ultimately the rug’s pulled from beneath her feet.”

“[But] he just keeps trying to box herself out of whatever corner she’s put in,” Highmore added. “She won’t go down without a good old fight.”

Also in episode 9, Emma (Olivia Cooke) tends to family business as her husband Dylan (Max Thieriot) gets caught between his past and his future. Meanwhile, Romero (Nestor Carbonell) enacts his plan for revenge.

“Bates Motel” Season 5, episode 9 airs tonight at 10 p.m. EDT on A&E.