Jason Bateman is our guest on this episode of Hollywood Reporter‘s Awards talks The podcast — which was recorded in front of students enrolled in a Chapman University journalism class called “The Art of the Interview” — is an actor, director and producer who has been in the business for 45 years and has never been more respected or successful than he is now. today.
Batman began his career as a child actor – and became a teen star – in the 1980s on television shows Little house on the meadow, Silver spoons and Valerielater renamed Hogan family. But in the 1990s, work dried up for him, he developed substance abuse problems, and he largely disappeared from the Hollywood scene. But in the 2000s, against all odds, he came back with a vengeance with the single-camera historical comedy series. Arrested developmentreinventing himself as the witty straight man not only for this Emmy Award-winning show, but for a wide range of other projects on screens big and small.
“I don’t take anything from actors who like them representationsaid Batman when he was a guest for the first time Awards talks In 2018, “but I’m really drawn to something different.” At the time, he was just beginning the next major chapter of his career, not only as a star but also as a director and executive producer of Ozarka drama series about a Chicago family member who becomes indebted to a Mexican drug lord who agreed to launder money for him. There we captured the conversation for this episode.
As you can hear via the audio player above or via any major podcast app, the 57-year-old reflected on why he had the opportunity to direct Ozark It was a prerequisite for him agreeing to act on it (he won an Emmy for directing an episode from the show’s second season); Why did he and his friends Will Arnett and Sean Hayes decide to launch a podcast? SmartlessWhat he attributes to its enormous popularity and financial success (it has generated nine-figure revenues); And what prompted him to step out of his aforementioned acting comfort zone in two limited series released over the past year, the Netflix series Black rabbitin which he played the black sheep of two brothers who start a restaurant together, and HBO Max’s DTF St. Louisin which he played a meteorologist at a local TV news station who bonds with a colleague who is equally frustrated in his life (Bateman also served as executive producer for both shows and directed two episodes of the first).
The session concludes with student questions.
So, with huge thanks to Jason Bateman for doing this, without further ado, let’s get into that conversation!
