Jason Bateman has been working in Hollywood since he was ten years old, and he’s learned a lot along the way. In this episode of “What I’ve Learned,” Esquire’s cover star sits down with Editor-in-Chief Michael Sebastian to reflect on child stardom, getting sober in his thirties, and building the lasting marriage and career that followed. Watch as the actor, director, and SmartLess co-host opens up about four decades in the business, raising two daughters, and what really keeps him grounded in a world built on illusions.
Check out Jason Bateman’s Esquire cover here: LINK TK
Stream ‘Black Rabbit’ on Netflix.
#JasonBateman #BlackRabbit #ArrestedDevelopment #Smartless #Ozark #WhatIveLearned #Esquire
Check out Jason Bateman’s Esquire cover here: LINK TK
Stream ‘Black Rabbit’ on Netflix.
#JasonBateman #BlackRabbit #ArrestedDevelopment #Smartless #Ozark #WhatIveLearned #Esquire
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00I was such a douchebag.
00:02I had some, like, affected voice.
00:04There's something about you that people love.
00:07What is that thing?
00:08You really would have to ask that person,
00:10and then ask the millions of other people that are just
00:13like, yeah, that guy's not for me.
00:15The first line of your obituary, what's it going to say?
00:17I'm not answering that fucking question.
00:24Hi, I'm Michael Sebastian, editor-in-chief of Esquire,
00:26and this is What I've Learned.
00:28Today, I'm joined by an actor who's been working
00:30since the age of 10, an award-winning director
00:32and now media mogul.
00:33He's also very, very funny.
00:35Please welcome Jason Bateman.
00:37Hi.
00:37Hey, how you doing?
00:38You put in the applause right now, just under this.
00:40Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
00:41That's right, yeah.
00:42This is film before a live studio audience, actually.
00:44I should have mentioned that.
00:45Welcome, everyone.
00:48So I've got some questions to ask you here,
00:51but one thing that I just want to tell you as we start this
00:53is that you have the distinction of being a man who,
00:57both my wife and my 10-year-old daughter have crushes on.
01:01Yeah, no, it's true.
01:02Well, tell them hello and thank you for their incredible taste.
01:06Well, actually, I should say that my wife at least did have a crush on you
01:09because she watched Little House on the Prairie growing up.
01:12So James was like one of her first crushes.
01:15Got it.
01:15And now our 10-year-old daughter is watching it,
01:17and she also has a crush on James, so.
01:20It's smash cut to Black Rabbit.
01:22Yeah, exactly, exactly, exactly.
01:25Okay, but where I want to start is that the New York Times once described you as,
01:29quote unquote, constitutionally mild.
01:31What do you think that means?
01:33Constitutionally mild.
01:35It sounds like another one of their, um, hilarious...
01:39Obviously, they have incredible journalists,
01:42and their use of language is, uh, that's what they do for a living.
01:46I got a terrible review from them on the pilot of Ozark.
01:51Mike Hale, uh, basically said that I'm, I was so boring to watch.
01:56It was, it reminded him of the person that he buys a ticket from in the airport.
02:02You know, like that person that works at the counter.
02:05I just, I thought that was, I laughed my ass off.
02:07I was just like, that's just like, if I was a reviewer,
02:10I would love to be able to be that good at, at being specific.
02:13Constitutionally mild.
02:15I'm going to spin it to the positive and say that I, uh,
02:18I have a calming effect over viewers.
02:21Usually in the parts that I play, by choice.
02:24I really like playing the part that is, that is us.
02:27Yeah.
02:28You know, kind of, if you were in that situation,
02:30which character would you be?
02:32You'd probably be the constitutionally mild person,
02:35you know, the everyman that is experiencing all of this craziness.
02:39Maybe that's what they meant.
02:40It is interesting that you go, uh, there immediately,
02:43because you have been described, uh,
02:45I feel like your wife in an interview described you as an everyman.
02:48People talk about how you're sort of like the ultimate straight man.
02:50Is that something?
02:51Did you set out to be that character?
02:55I mean, there's two reasons behind that.
02:57Number one, I do like playing the part that is sort of your proxy, um,
03:03inside of something.
03:04The person who's ingesting all of this stuff.
03:07And the person that the camera cuts to to show the reaction to it.
03:11How would you react to it?
03:12I like being that, that person.
03:14The other reason is that I kind of got a little
03:19cringed out from watching acting, uh, 15, 20 years ago.
03:26I started looking at people like, you know, with the lisp and the,
03:30and the, the lazy eye and the accent and the limp.
03:33And it was like, it was seeing a lot of acting.
03:36Yeah.
03:37I really started looking for the characters that would lend themselves
03:41to a very naturalistic approach.
03:43Um, I feel the opposite coming, coming on a little bit more.
03:48Like, cause that's how, that's how I started.
03:50I really want to be a character actor.
03:51I feel like I might want to take on a little bit more in the other end, uh,
03:58next, but we'll see.
03:59Well, in Black Rabbit, I mean,
04:00you don't play the everyman or the, the straight man.
04:03That was a, yeah, the first time I'd really sort of changed my look a bit, uh,
04:07for something in a long time.
04:08And it, it, it was, it was, it was cool to look in the mirror
04:11right before I left my dressing room and go,
04:12oh, that's not who I thought I looked like right now.
04:16I look like that.
04:17Okay.
04:17That is actually doing a lot of acting for me.
04:19Yeah.
04:20And so now I can do some of my naturalistic stuff behind that.
04:23And I don't need to look like a guy who's an ex-drug addict and, and, and act like that.
04:30It just sort of seems like that.
04:31Um, you mentioned, uh, the hair and the beard and everything like that,
04:35that you had for Black Rabbit.
04:36How long were you growing your hair and your beard for that?
04:39I mean, it's, it's actually, it's not too dissimilar from this ugliness today.
04:42I apologize.
04:43Um, that was probably nine, 10, 11 months, somewhere in there.
04:48Yeah.
04:49I thought that I was going to cut it, you know, and shape it into something different on the day.
04:54But I got there and just said, ah, no, he's probably a guy that wouldn't do anything to his hair
05:02in over a year or his face. He's just thinking about other things.
05:06So you're not going method, in other words, for these roles?
05:08Not yet.
05:09Yeah, not yet.
05:10Not yet.
05:10Maybe, maybe in the future.
05:11I gotta find a dealer first.
05:13Yeah.
05:13So, uh, you have two daughters, uh, one of whom I believe just left for college, right?
05:19Yeah.
05:19Yeah.
05:20How's, how's that going?
05:21Incredibly well.
05:22She's very, very into it.
05:25Fortunately, it's in town here, so we see her every once in a while.
05:28And we haven't, you know, drowned in a puddle of tears that, you know, we've left her in some
05:34foreign state and now are living without her.
05:37My 13-year-old, still very much at home. That's going to be tough when she goes.
05:41Hopefully she'll pick a school here in L.A. as well.
05:44But it's, you know, I love how confident they both are.
05:49They're different every single year, as you know.
05:52And some years they're behaving in ways you're like, ew.
05:56And then other years they're behaving in ways like, oh boy, I hope they figure it out.
06:01And then other years that they've got it all together.
06:03And it's just like this constantly.
06:06My college daughter, uh, is just, is so confident.
06:10And she's just eating up everything about life and the college experience.
06:14And the future is so bright.
06:16And I remember feeling that when I was 18 too.
06:19I just love seeing that blind confidence of 18.
06:22And you think it's all just going to be unicorns and rainbows forever.
06:25Um, and, and then, you know, she'll be a little bit humbled with the practicalities of,
06:30of, of life.
06:31And, and hopefully she'll come and seek our counsel for that.
06:36What have you learned raising two daughters though?
06:38Like what, what, what are some of the things that you've learned about yourself from that?
06:41Um, I think any parent learns a, a deeper level of patience and compromise and understanding
06:46and empathy, um, deeper than you thought you might ever, um, or maybe at a time you didn't
06:54anticipate learning it.
06:55One of the early ones came in traffic, you know, or stop and go traffic on the venture
06:59freeway.
06:59And you can't move and it's hot and the air conditioning is not working.
07:05And the infant in the backseat is screaming their head off and you just can't negotiate
07:09with them.
07:10You just have to deal with it, you know, like many things in life.
07:14And it's a great teacher of many things.
07:19That was one of them.
07:20Yeah.
07:20Yeah.
07:20Um, so you, uh, were a child actor and, uh, you know, there's so many child
07:25actors that don't kind of make it out of that stage of their career.
07:28You did.
07:29I still feel like I'm, I'm still trying to make sure I, I make it out.
07:33Really?
07:34Like, yeah.
07:34And I'm going to be 60 in four years.
07:36It's like, we don't change that much after we're 18, 19, 20.
07:42I mean, I still feel like I'm there.
07:45It's just my skin crepes a little bit now.
07:48Like that, that's the only difference.
07:50There's a healthy portion to that.
07:52You know, the, the, the, the, the humility of that, the, the humanness of it.
07:58Um, that it's never, you're never done trying to get done what you want to do,
08:05because as you start to approach some pre-established goal,
08:12you start setting the next one, as you see that attaining this one might be possible.
08:18I think you hope to be the kind of person that won't sort of rest on the accomplishment of that
08:26and be content with the status quo, but instead use the energy and confidence, uh, and happiness
08:34of attaining that goal or getting close to it to fuel the, the moxie to set a higher one.
08:41There's always this healthy feeling of short of accomplishment that I, I, uh, I, I, I enjoy.
08:48Yeah.
08:49You've given a lot of interviews over the 40 some years that you've been in, in the spotlight,
08:53but there's one in particular that you gave in 1987 while you were promoting Teen Wolf 2.
08:58Oh boy.
08:59You're talking to Jane Pauley.
09:00Oh buddy, I just saw this. It came up on my stuff and I watched this interview
09:06for about 90 seconds and I had to turn it off.
09:09The hardest work, I think, for me at least, is, is after you leave the, the studio.
09:14You know, you've got to, um, if you're not in a good mood, you've, you've, well, you know,
09:18you've got to be in a good mood for your, your public.
09:21I was such a douche bag. I mean, I had some like affected voice.
09:28I was wondering about that voice.
09:29Oh, I think, I think it's because I'm all banged up from the night before,
09:34but there's also just such a self satisfaction. And I think I'm talking about how many things I
09:40turned down to, to do Teen Wolf 2. Hey guy, that no one's buying that. And like, anyway,
09:49not a lot of people have interviews of themselves, like almost in every year of their life since they
09:54were 10. There's so many phases that you're just not proud of. And that I get to look back at some
09:59of those and, and sort of appreciate that hopefully an interview like this is that it goes down a little
10:04bit more easy. It's a wildly unique experience though, to have, to have that, like you're like
10:10one of a handful of people that has had this experience before. What, what does that teach you?
10:14Like, what do you take away from that? Your opinion of what reality is can only be as accurate as
10:25your ability to be honest with yourself. You know, like I thought I was fantastic,
10:33but I clearly was telling myself a lot of things that just weren't that accurate. Or I thought people
10:40were buying something that a more sophisticated eye, the one I have at 56 and of which there were
10:46many 56 year olds on that set that day were probably looking at me going, Oh buddy, take it easy.
10:52You got a lot to learn and no one is buying your bullshit. They were kind enough not to say it at
10:57the time. I wish they had, I probably would have dropped it a little bit earlier, but it wasn't until
11:01I was kind of in my mid twenties that I started to accept some of the humbling, honest truths about
11:12behavior and, and, and how I come across and, and what's really going on and really being confident
11:19with being honest and being human. You know? Yeah. I mean, but does that kind of
11:22fuck you up though? You know, first of all, you know, starting at the age of 10, I was teaching myself
11:28how to be a professional liar, convince people that I was something other than what I was thinking
11:34inside. Yeah. You know, that's our job, you know, pretending to be other people. So I thought that
11:39people would buy this, this role that I was doing on today's show, which is, you know, super confident
11:45and like there's no problems in the world. You know, I'm, I'm a man. It's just, I was playing a part.
11:51And so I started to stop acting so much in my real life in my mid twenties. It took certain events to
11:59happen where I accepted the, the, the humbling-ness of, uh, being just who we are, you know?
12:09How did you feel though in your, I guess it would have been in your twenties, in the nineties, uh, before,
12:14you know, Arrested Development comes along and you know, you're, you're not landing the roles that you
12:19would necessarily be known for now. I mean, was there a, was there a moment of, of moments of
12:23panic or despair? Yeah. Oh, it was horrible. My twenties were very confusing and, um, challenging.
12:32There was therapy. There was, um, you know, seeking advice. There was, um, a lot of self-doubt, um,
12:40that was happening at the same time I was trying to catch up for all of the time that I was working
12:44and not playing. So I was doing a lot of playing too, which, you know, all those worries go away
12:50at night, but they come back, you know, the next day. Even more so. Exactly. And, and so there was
12:55a learning curve with that as well. And fortunately it, it, it, it, it wasn't really more than that
13:02decade. You know, the twenties were, were a lot. Um, and then in my early thirties,
13:09I, you know, stopped drinking, married my girlfriend who's still my wife and got arrested
13:16development. And it was all kind of right in that 12, 24 months. I mean, that's a huge moment,
13:22your early thirties, you land arrested development, you give up drinking, you get married. I mean,
13:27like what, what do you take away from that? What's the lesson there? There always was a plan. The three
13:32things I always said I wanted to do when I was a kid, uh, that I wanted to get done as an adult,
13:38uh, was to be a father, a husband and direct a movie. If I wanted to do those three things,
13:45I can't be doing this handful of things when I'm an adult. So when would be the time to get these
13:52things done? Well, probably when it's somewhat palatable, tolerable, acceptable to be doing them,
13:59your teens and your twenties. So I was really getting a lot of that stuff out of my system,
14:04knowing that at 30 is probably about the time you got to get your shit together and start to try to
14:09execute the plan. So I was very conscious at 30. I mean, I also knew like somebody told me that your
14:14lungs stopped reproducing new cells after 30. So I stopped smoking too. Like now's the time to do it.
14:19Did you get this out of your system? Cause I didn't want to be 56 and think, God, I've never,
14:25I've never really been hung over. I've never really done this, that the, you know, that's,
14:31I, I know people that have midlife crisis cause they just didn't release the valve back when they
14:36should have, you know, I'm sure you know some of those people too. So I'm glad I got it out.
14:40So there's something about you that people love. What is that thing? What is that thing that people
14:45love so much? Like what do you think it is? I, you really would have to ask that person and then,
14:50and then ask the millions of other people that are just like, yeah, that guy's not for me.
14:56I am, I do a public job. So I am asking for people to like me, to, um,
15:06tolerate what I'm selling, whether it be playing a character or doing stuff like this where it's,
15:12I'm not, I can't hide behind a character or it's not a writer's fault that you don't like that
15:17character. You know, like, this is just me. So I, you know, there, I am a people pleaser.
15:23I do care about what people think about me for sure. I read all the, all the reviews. I don't
15:28really read comments cause that's a whole different thing, but, um, I am, I'm doing these projects
15:34for public consumption. So it matters to me what the public thinks about them. It matters to me
15:39what critics think about them. So I'm factoring all that in, but like for all of us, what's most
15:48important is that the weather inside is 72 and breezy, you know, and that, that takes a lot of
15:55work to stay happy, to stay clear and, um, to be proud of yourself, you know, cause you can't,
16:05you can't hide that. You can try to drink through it, you know, but as you said it,
16:10you're sober in the morning and you got to live in those hours too. So, um, I, I do try to keep
16:16my room clean, um, and do the kinds of things that won't chase me down the street during the day.
16:22You have incredible comedic timing. Seth Gordon, the director of Horrible Bosses called it the
16:27classic Bateman timing. What, what is that? Describe that to me.
16:32Describe that to me. I don't know. I, I, there are obviously many, many, many, many that do
16:37have that. Um, and, and I, I don't have it all the time. I think, you know, when you're,
16:42you know, when you're in the shower and you've got the soap going and you're doing your loop,
16:47you know, or even when you come out the towel, you, you have a pattern that gets everything dry.
16:53If you ever start to think about, or brushing your teeth, if you ever start thinking about
16:57what you, you lose your place and you, so if I think about what that is, I, I'm, I'm off.
17:04And sometimes I've thought about it, you know, and, and, and, and stuff, and it's not great.
17:09So I recognize that I need to be in a place of relaxation where I'm not being, um, too contrived
17:16about it all and, and trying to just kind of just be in the scene and, and let it happen. Um, my,
17:22my mother is British and, and I was in a house that had a very dry sense of humor. And so I think
17:29that's, that's where it kind of got started where there was, she never felt the need to
17:35laugh off something dry and sarcastic. She said there was no winking with her, which to me was
17:41hilarious. You know, like Jeffrey Tambor did that on Arrested Development. He was setting a tone for the
17:47show comedically like, oh, there's not going to be any winking on the show. Every, it's going to be,
17:52fucking serious. And if any of these characters knew that anyone was laughing at them, they'd be
17:57deeply offended and might get violent, you know? Um, so to me, that was like, oh, great. This is,
18:03this is the comedy I grew up with. This is the comedy I've wanted to do, but really wasn't able
18:07to do fully in all the sitcom work that I had done prior to that multi-camera work where there's a
18:12studio audience where you hear them laughing. And so tonally, there's a little bit more of a
18:18participation with the audience and the actors, so it's a bit more of a performative experience
18:23as opposed to an acting experience, um, if that makes any sense. No, no, no, it does. And by the
18:29way, the story about your mom, uh, being British, uh, I feel like it unlocks a lot of, you know,
18:35what your sense of humor is. Yeah. Yeah. It's so dry that it actually can seem almost cruel at
18:40times. Yeah. I feel like, and yet you, you pull it off though. I mean, well, yeah, there's,
18:44I do play asshole well, I think. Um, and I apologize for that, but I am thankfully aware of it such that
18:54I do look for moments where I can flash the character being less sure of himself. So I, I tried,
19:03I try to work in a level of dumbness into somebody who's cocksure, you know, so that there's a blend
19:10in there that's makes it a little bit more palatable. Is that, does that carry over into
19:13your personal life though? Like, are you? Yeah. Notwithstanding what I've said so far in the
19:18interview. I, I, I do, there aren't a lot of things I know a lot about, but the few things I
19:24do know a lot about, I, I will dig in at times when I'm working with someone and say, well, but,
19:31but wait, I really think I have the right answer about this. And, and, and so I'll be confident
19:36about certain things, but I do try to balance that out by when I am wrong, I will admit it and
19:43be very self-effacing and make fun of myself all day. Um, and I'll also be very aware of,
19:48if I'm working with an alpha that can't do any time being a beta, otherwise it's not going to go
19:54well, I will take the beta role all day, um, to make that relationship work. Or even if they're not
20:00an alpha or it's just, it, I just feel even in a scene, if, if I feel like one character is, is kind
20:06of taking a lane that I thought I was going to take, I'm, I don't, you don't want a redundancy there.
20:12I'll move my character over into this lane so that there's the proper, you know, spectrum
20:18color wise in there that there's not, there's a little bit of overlap, but you do on smart list,
20:22for example, I'm often playing the dummy on that because Will or Sean are playing the person that
20:30really knows what the fuck they're talking about with this. And you can tell they're not going to
20:33move off of it, you know? And it's like, all right, well, we're not going to have a fight here.
20:38And so I'll just play dumb. Like, it's just people skills. It's nothing, you know,
20:43you've got to go to school for.
20:44In Black Rabbit, there's so many good moments, but actually my favorite Jason Bateman moment,
20:49or Vince moment, is the two debt collectors come into the kitchen at the Black Rabbit,
20:55and it's just you. One of them says something like, uh, the cheap, the cheap pay. And you,
21:00you can't help, like the character can't help himself by saying, cheap pay twice.
21:04The cheap pay for it.
21:11Twice. Huh? Cheap pay twice. I think it is.
21:16And a great example of kind of what we were talking about, like, well, imagine just seeing
21:20that written in the script, you know, you would read it as like, oh, he's being a dick. He's
21:25correcting him. Twice. What's that? Cheap pay twice, I think it is. You know, like, I've said it
21:31like a dick in other, in other films, but this guy's got a pair of scissors in his hands. And so
21:36you got to kind of soften it a little bit by, by pretending to kind of not really know if this is
21:41the right answer, but you correct me if I'm wrong, but it's, it's twice, isn't it? And I think I even
21:45looked to the other guy like, right? Like, so, you know, I know how to pretend to not know the
21:50right answer to make sure people don't get offended. I don't know. It's such a great moment
21:56of humor and a very kind of like dark, what would look like it was going to become a very dark scene,
22:00essentially. Right. Yeah. That was later. Yeah. That was later. Yeah. Do you think Hollywood is
22:05a meritocracy? Some of it is for sure. I don't want to be super pessimistic about that, but I will
22:12there's a good, there's a good and a bad that it is, that it, that, that half of the industry is not
22:18a meritocracy. The bad obviously is that if you're the best at your job, uh, you're not guaranteed
22:23employment like you would, if you were, you know, a 300 hitter in baseball, you'll, you'll play for 20
22:30years. Right. You know, right. But if you're a 300 hitter as an actor, it's like, who, who says you,
22:37you got a hit on the last job? You know, that didn't work. That last job didn't work for me. I didn't,
22:40I didn't like that film. You know, it's all sort of subjective. The good of it is that there's
22:45nothing predictable about our business. You never really know if you're gonna,
22:50I don't know if I, that's what we were talking about earlier, 56. I'd still feel like I'm trying
22:53to not be, you know, a, a, a, a, a child actor failure because I don't know if I'm gonna be
22:58working next year. You know, I mean, where's the wood? Um, people ask me, you know, I want my kid
23:04to go into the business. What do you recommend? And I don't recommend kids starting in it
23:10for two reasons. Number one, what we were saying earlier about you kind of teach yourself
23:15schizophrenia, uh, at an age when you should be allowing for all the clues and signals
23:24of who you are to come in. You know, like you're trying to figure out who you are at that age,
23:29not trying to develop believable other versions of yourself. Like that's kind of a very complicated
23:35thing to ask a kid to, to accomplish. The other thing is that you could be spending all of those years
23:41training for, for an occupation, an industry that is a meritocracy where you can come out
23:47of college credentialed and say, I have a, I've a, based on this diploma, I've got a base salary.
23:53I've got some job security that I can rely on. I, I feel like I can ask my girlfriend to marry me
23:59coming out of college. I can provide blah, blah, blah. Like you don't have that ever in this business.
24:05Jerry Seinfeld tells a story to a up and coming comedian who was like, should I stick with this?
24:10And he tells the story about, uh, like Glenn Miller's band flying into somewhere in Minnesota
24:15where it's snowing and cold and they have to walk from the airport to, uh, wherever their gig is or
24:20something like that. And they come upon a house where it's like, it looks warm and cozy inside.
24:25There's like a family in there and they walk up to the window and they look at it. And one of the
24:29musicians says, I mean, wow, can you believe this? And the other one says, I know, how do people live
24:34like that? I feel like this is, this is the trade-off with being, being in Hollywood though.
24:40Sure. To each their own. Uh, but I happen to be somebody that really loves
24:47that. I love a fireplace. I love nesting. I love being with my family. Boredom is sort of
24:54the door behind which relaxation lives. I think my mom was a flight attendant, uh, for Pan Am. So
25:02she was flying internationally half the month, um, whole childhood. She was only there two weeks of
25:09every month and, and, uh, Christmas sometimes would be on the 15th or the 2nd of January or whatever,
25:15depending on whether she was in town. And so we never really had Sunday dinners. And my dad was a
25:20freelance writer, director, producer. So he would either be on location or maybe downstairs in the
25:24basement writing a script or something. So we were kind of latchkey kids and my parents were our
25:29managers, you know, so there was sort of a peer relationship with our parents as opposed to that
25:33deferential kind of parents of the North star. So I look for routine. I look for
25:41something that is, um, calm because of all of the unpredictability of this business.
25:49Some people thrive on that. I prefer the balance of it. I'm this close to being crazy like all of us.
25:55Um, but I'm also this far over into sanity, you know, and, and I'm really proud of that because
26:02it's a daily job, I think for all of us, you know, and, and, uh, there's been a lot of things in my life
26:09that can get me confused, just like a lot of things in everyone else's life. And the way in which you
26:16are honest with yourself and process these things and talk to people, uh, whether it be a, a partner,
26:22a family member, a therapist, a friend, whatever it is, um, or yourself, uh, the better off you are and
26:29you can take on more and maybe have a more dynamic life. That's a really beautiful, uh, answer right
26:34there. I, I've been working on it. I knew this interview was coming. So Black Rabbit is about
26:39two brothers. You have a famous sister, Justine, and I'm curious, what is your relationship like
26:45with her right now? Um, is we have lunch coming up, uh, next week. Um, great. We're, we, we respect one
26:52another. Um, we don't see each other a ton, mostly because it's kind of the way we were brought up.
27:00As we are now adult children and, and adult siblings, there isn't the typical sort of like,
27:06well, we see each other every Thanksgiving or every Christmas and our kids, our cousins,
27:11there isn't that in a great way. And, and there's a, a way in which we live that is non-traditional
27:18and it's very consistent with the way that we were brought up. We allow each other to be
27:23a different person than maybe the last time I saw you, which could have been a year ago
27:28or a week ago. Um, that's sort of a contract you have with people that are your very close friends.
27:35You know, you allow them to be, to, to morph and, and, and see the effects of what's going on in their
27:41life, you know, manifest in their current personality and their current way in which they, they live.
27:46And so it's a really healthy relationship that, that, that we've worked on. I'm really proud of us
27:52for, you know, being at the spot that, that we are. You've been married to, uh, the same woman,
27:57Amanda for 20 plus years. Is that right? Uh, yes. Jason, what's the secret?
28:03Uh, I married a friend, um, as opposed to a girlfriend. Okay. That was, that was a big one for
28:09me because I'm sure like you, the girlfriends that you had before this current marriage you're in
28:15didn't last. You know, you, you break up with girlfriends. I found that I didn't break up with
28:21friends. Um, and so what were those relationships? What, what was keeping me with my friends? What
28:28was that dynamic? What did I like about them? What did they like about me? Who was I when I was with
28:33them? Um, and so since I only wanted to get married once, I thought, find, uh, someone I'm
28:41sexually attracted to that's also a friend. Yeah. Amanda, I knew was that for many years before
28:48she agreed to go out with me and really before I, I, I really deserved to go out with her. I was still
28:55working out a bunch of other crap and she sensed that. And once I got all that crap out of me, um,
29:02she, she said yes. And we haven't looked back. What's the difference between love and sex?
29:07Love is something that you feel and share with someone else. Sex is something you do with someone
29:26else, sometimes with that person, you know? And I mean, like, I'm sure you've had sex with people that
29:32you didn't love. So sex is an activity, I guess. Maybe the, the more apt sort of yin-yang thing is
29:41what's the difference between sex and making love? What's the difference between fucking and making
29:45love maybe? Sure. I don't know. I just don't know if sex and love are even in the same bin. Your, your
29:51introspection really shone through with your, your answer to that. Because most people answer that
29:56question and they're like, it's like a one-liner or something like that. You like really thought about
29:59that, you know? Right. Well, I mean, they're, they're different, you know? Yeah. They, they can
30:03coexist. Yeah. Um, but definitely different. Both incredible. Both incredible. I recommend them both.
30:11If you've got free time this afternoon. You've expressed interests before in hosting a TV show.
30:18You've said this before in an interview, but now you're hosting something that's arguably bigger than
30:22a TV show. Is hosting a TV show still an ambition for you? Yeah. For, for a bunch of different reasons,
30:28I won't bore you with, but one of the reasons I wanted to be a talk show host is, is to talk to
30:33interesting people and ask them questions, you know? Uh, and, and I'm getting to do that for an hour.
30:39It's, it's, it's such a gift. I, I, I'm so grateful that we've got, uh, the audience that lets us continue
30:47to do this. And all we're doing, all it feels like we're doing is, is bullshitting like this.
30:55Those two guys are two of my best friends, if not my best friends. And they're two of the funniest
31:00people I've ever met with. And so that's enormously helpful to the cocktail. Yeah.
31:07Uh, talk to me about what happens before and after with the, with your two co-hosts,
31:12uh, you guys start recording. I'm at my house. They're at their houses. Um, I'm in my pajamas,
31:17nine out of 10 times. Yeah. I go to this one room that's set up in the house. That's got a
31:25shitty table and a shitty chair and a microphone from Amazon that screws into the table that squeaks.
31:33And, and I open up the laptop 60 seconds before we're set to go and click join zoom. Like everyone
31:41does the moment that we come up on the screen, they're recording. So there's no prep involved
31:46in like, okay, so let's, let's start the little pre chat. Now, you know, let's talk about this.
31:50What the listener hears is exactly our experience as well. Nothing, nothing different.
31:55You've been doing this for five years. You've interviewed tons of people,
31:59including three presidents at once, right? Yeah. Yeah. Uh, what have you learned from,
32:04I mean, what are you coming to your takeaways from this? Not from like being the host of this,
32:08but from talking to all these people. The big one is that, you know, they are all,
32:14they being these incredibly talented, accomplished, you know, superstars. They're, they're exactly like
32:23us, the listener. They are nervous to do the show. A hundred percent of them, you know,
32:31we're nervous doing it as, as the hosts. It's weird. Everybody is human. Everybody's self-conscious.
32:37Everybody's wondering if they sound like an idiot. Everybody kind of hopes that they're funny.
32:43That's really the cool takeaway that the three of us, uh, bring from it. And, and hopefully the
32:49listener does as well is that what, what we usually end up asking them is what take us from where you
32:56were, which is kind of where we all are as, as question askers and the listeners, how did you get
33:03to where you are now? You know, take us through that process. How could we possibly do that? What
33:07was the step-by-step of that? And so it becomes hopefully a bit tangible to the listener about,
33:14well, you kind of put one foot in front of this foot in front of this foot and opportunity knocks
33:18here. Do you have the balls to grab that and see if you can do that? And then confidence lives on the
33:24backside of having accomplished that. And then that confidence runs you towards the next, like,
33:29and it's like, Oh, so it is possible maybe for me too. And that's kind of an uplifting thing to
33:36finish your listen with, you know, that it's, it just becomes tangible.
33:40Was there a guest where they appeared on screen and you like instantly felt nervous?
33:45Tom York and Johnny Greenwood from Radiohead, they were the big white whale for me. And when they said
33:51yes, I couldn't stop thinking about it until the day we recorded. Once they revealed their camera and
33:58there, their faces were now I got to start asking questions. And, um, that was, that was tough
34:04for me because I just think they're it. Do you remember being on Johnny Carson when you were 15?
34:09A lot. Yeah, I'm sure. Yeah. Okay. So Johnny Carson asked you a question said,
34:12if you could be reincarnated as another, as an animal, uh, what would it be? Do you remember
34:17your answer? I said a bird, right? Would you change that now? No. Still a bird. No,
34:21I think I said it was the one thing I got right at that age. Um, yeah. I mean,
34:25let's think about it. A bird is never in traffic. A bird can go to, I think I said this on the,
34:31it can go to any sporting event they want and have the best seat. You said the Olympics,
34:35which was really funny. Yeah. But I think the Olympics, yeah, it was 84. So I was 15. Yeah.
34:38The Olympics were in LA that year. You could, you could sit on the field of any game.
34:43You could sit on the mound at the world series. How you feeling about the Dodgers this year?
34:48Well, I'm sure this is going to air after they've gone through this post season, but, uh,
34:52we are currently, uh, two games up on the Phillies in the division series and it's nerve wracking,
34:58but I'm pretty confident. I think, I think we're going to win again the world series.
35:03So we'll be back to back champions. I think we're going to get a third one next year.
35:06Yeah. Okay. And then I think we're going to break the record with the fourth right after that.
35:12That's all on the record. If that happens, that's going to be incredible.
35:14I'm calling it right now. Yeah. But you're also a Jets fan. Is that right? No.
35:17I mean, sure. If they're sending tickets, I'm happy to put on the hat. Yeah.
35:22You know, I'm a whore. I like the sporting events. I do like the Jets. I like the Knicks.
35:27I like the Rangers, but I'm, I'm, I'm in LA. I like the Dodgers. I like the Kings.
35:33You know, we didn't have a football team for a long time. So I'm a bit of a whore when it
35:36comes to football teams. Cause I had a bit of a gambling problem with, with football for a while
35:40there. So I started to just kind of like fall in love with whoever had the best spread.
35:44I, I, um, I, I'm most passionate about baseball and specifically the Dodgers.
35:48All right. Last question. Uh, the first line of your obituary, what's it going to say?
35:52Oh boy. I don't know, man. I'm not answering that fucking question.
35:58Um, dead today is Jason Bateman.
36:03What I'm trying to get at here is, is like, what are you going to be known for?
36:06I, I really truly hope, um, people will remember me. And this is probably people in my personal
36:13life and not necessarily, you know, people who only see me on the other side of the screen,
36:18but people that I work with and people that I love and live with. Hopefully they enjoyed themselves
36:25around me, whether we're hanging out or I'm working for them or they're working for me or working
36:31together. You know, like it just takes a little bit more effort to be the best version of yourself.
36:37And I, I try to get that done each day. It makes me feel better about myself and hopefully it makes
36:47everyone else feel a little bit better. The lives that I'm affecting. Um, so hopefully that's the
36:52takeaway. Well, I enjoyed myself. So, you know, mission accomplished there. Thanks for having me.
36:57Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for coming. Uh, thank you, Jason Bateman for joining us for what I've learned.
37:01Check out Esquire where he's on the cover. He's on the cover of Esquire. So, uh, go check it out.
37:05Yes. Wait to see the pictures. Yeah. Oh, good. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
37:09I photograph very differently. Do you really? Oh, it's not great.
37:13Do, can we actually maybe rethink the cover thing? Yeah, yeah. Is that, uh, yeah. Is that possible?
37:17Leave, leave, keep your knees bent on that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thanks.
37:27Bye.
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