The Untold Truth Of Jason Bateman

Jason Bateman has been a Hollywood name for more than four decades now, and in that time he seems to have transformed multiple times. He went from child star to teen heartthrob to troubled partier all before age 30. Then in the last two decades, starting with "Arrested Development" in 2003, Bateman has emerged as a bigger star than ever. He has proven himself to a master at both comedy and drama, TV and film, acting and directing. He also seems pretty darn cool.

Before "Arrested Development," Bateman was best known for his television work in shows such as "Little House on the Prairie," "Silver Spoons," "The Hogan Family," and a lot of failed sitcoms. He was also in a few films, most notably the "Teen Wolf" sequel, "Teen Wolf Too." Since his cultural rebranding, Bateman's movie career has skyrocketed. This has included dramas like "The Kingdom" and "The Gift," dramadies like "Juno" and "Up in the Air," and many comedies, like "Couples Retreat," "Horrible Bosses," and "Identity Thief," to name a few.

In 2017, Bateman started playing money launderer Marty Byrde in Netflix's smash hit "Ozark," a role that is certainly among his most memorable. Not only has "Ozark" earned Bateman his first Screen Actors Guild Award (two, actually) and his first Primetime Emmy Award (for directing, not acting), but it has also allowed his fame to reach even greater heights. Still, there is much to learn about this Hollywood bigwig. Here is the untold truth of Jason Bateman.

We all know that Jason Bateman is not the only thespian in his family. He is brother to Justine Bateman, who shot to fame herself as a teenager when she starred as Mallory Keaton on "Family Ties." Lesser known to the general public is that Kent Bateman, Jason and Justine's father, was also in the business. According to IMDb, Kent has a handful of directing credits, including four episodes of "The Hogan Family," then known as "Valerie," and one episode of "Family Ties." He also has some writing and producing credits and, unsurprisingly, served as an executive producer on his son's movie "Teen Wolf Too."

Though Kent was not especially successful, Jason credits him with inspiring his love of the screen. "My father was a director and producer so when I was a little kid he would take me to movies and show me what's good and what's not good and why, and often that would take me to a conversation about directing," he told The Guardian in 2014. He again discussed his father taking him to the movies in an NPR interview, explaining that their outings took the place of more "typical" father-son activities like playing catch. Around age 20, Bateman fired his father as his manager (per NJ.com), and while we hope it was because of increased opportunities and not any bad blood, USA Today once described their relationship as "off-and-on" -– so that can't be good.

Jason Bateman is now an acclaimed director, having won a Primetime Emmy Award for his work on "Ozark" at the 2019 ceremony. He was also nominated for a directing Emmy in 2018, and for Outstanding Directional Achievement in Dramatic Series at the 2021 Directors Guild of America Awards. Though Bateman has garnered much notice for his direction on "Ozark," this is far from his first foray into the field. He was a teenager the first time he stepped behind the camera, directing three episodes of "The Hogan Family" while starring on the show (though IMDb dates do not align with his firsthand account of being 18). 

"It was a few years into that show so I definitely felt like I was surrounded by a bunch of people that liked me," he said in a conversation with Judd Apatow, published in Variety. "My curiosity about what a director does was always something that was really interesting to me." Despite that curiosity, Bateman did not direct again until the late 1990s, starting with an episode of "Family Matters" and, a couple of years later, a few episodes of other programs. He has directed one episode of "Arrested Development," two episodes of "The Outsider," and 10 episodes of "Ozark," all of which are shows he has also acted in. Bateman has two movies under his belt as well, 2013's "Bad Words" and 2015's "The Family Fang." He starred in both.

Like many child actors, Jason Bateman's career forced him to grow up quickly and intensified as he became the biggest breadwinner in his home. In fact, by the time they were teenagers, Bateman and his sister were financially supporting their family. In a 2008 interview with USA Today, the actor detailed the stress that this put on his home life and the dynamics within the family unit. "I don't think there are many people who would say that was a healthy situation," Bateman said. One other consequence of Bateman's career was that it was not exactly complimentary to his schooling. Bateman has no college diploma and, somewhat surprisingly, did not even graduate high school.

"During finals of my senior year, we were shooting 'Teen Wolf Too,' and the workload was such that I couldn't take two of my four finals," Bateman explained to Jennifer Aniston in a video for Wired. "So they didn't give me my diploma." It seems as though kid thespians go one of two routes -– they either disengage from academics early on like Bateman, or they end up at a fancy Ivy League school. Natalie Portman went to Harvard, Brooke Shields to Princeton, and Jodie Foster to Yale. Bateman? Well, he just went back to work. While we are thankful for the art he has given us, Bateman often speaks of missing out on the college experience on his podcast, "Smartless." 

Like many child actors before and after him, Jason Bateman went a little off the rails once he was old enough to buy into his own fame. This period of time –- which a profile in The Guardian referred to as his "lost decade" –- coincided with a downturn in his popularity and was filled with partying and substance abuse. "It was like 'Risky Business' for 10 years," Bateman once said in an interview with Details magazine (per Access). "I'd worked so hard that by the time I was 20, I wanted to play hard. And I did that really well."

Bateman eventually started going to Alcoholics Anonymous after an ultimatum from his wife, though he told Details he was not in a place where he felt he needed rehab despite engaging in alcohol and "some blow." But even after getting sober, getting back to work was not exactly an easy sell. "I'd lost my place in line in the business," he told The Guardian. "It was a case of trying to claw that back towards the end of the 90s, and not getting a lot of great responses."

If you or anyone you know is struggling with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

Jason Bateman has 93 acting credits to his name, per his IMDb profile, but very few of these roles are showy, peculiar characters. Bateman's strength is in playing the everyman, the character onto whom the audience can project itself. "These more eccentric characters ... as funny as they're being, I have to be equally still, because I'm the audience," he told The Guardian. Bateman has also confessed to enjoying being the "straight man" because it allows him to be in more scenes.

The everyman is a role Bateman often fills in dramas as well. Even when playing a money launderer like "Ozark" dad Marty Byrde, he gravitates toward understatement and moderation in his portrayal. "My taste in acting right now is I really appreciate actors that do as little as possible as opposed to some actors are fantastic at being big and playing these eccentric characters," he explained in an interview with Gold Derby. "I'm just not one of those actors."

A lot of younger actors are really concerned with what is in the script, but seasoned professionals like Jason Bateman know that you can only tell so much from what is on the page. Like many experienced thespians, Bateman is equally concerned with the talent as he is with the content. "I just look for who's involved. It's not about the script: it's about who the director is and who the other people in the cast are," Bateman said in an interview with The Guardian.

He continued, "You can look at a great script and execute it in a very sophomoric way, and you can look at an OK script and you can execute it in a very sophisticated way and come out with something really good." This is something Bateman knows well, as he has had not only big hits but also major flops. The refreshing thing about him, however, is that he is open to admitting when something just does not translate for audiences. On the "WTF Podcast with Marc Maron," Bateman once referred to "Horrible Bosses 2" as "garbage at the box office" and asked whether audiences actually cared about watching the sequel. The movie made over $107 million worldwide (per Box Office Mojo), so someone cared, but it certainly was not the critics. The film has a 35% Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes.