On My Screen: Jason Bateman’s Dream Role In ‘DTF St. Louis’, ‘Black Rabbit’, Advice From Katharine Hepburn & Directing…

Jason Bateman has two vastly diverse limited series in Emmy contention right now: HBO Max’s DTF St. Louis, in which he plays Clark, a guileless weatherman swept up in a murder mystery alongside David Harbour and Linda Cardellini; and Netflix’s Black Rabbit, where his facial-hair-afflicted gambler Vince serves as the Cain to Jude Law’s Abel, dragging down their New York restaurant. While Bateman produced both shows, he also directed Black Rabbit, which already earned him DGA and Actor Award nominations.

Right now, he’s prepping to direct the dark comedy film The Cackling of the Dodos, starring Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell as farmers who discover a body in a grain bin. “They are two of my favorites, and the fact that they called me to direct them in this was just kind of a mind-blower for me,” says Bateman. Then, he’ll direct the John Grisham adaptation The Partner, starring Tom Holland as Biloxi lawyer Patrick Lanigan. In visualizing a current version of the 1997 novel, Bateman says, “What does it look like today? What’s the combination between, say, Jason Bourne and Bond and Michael Clayton, and what does that kind of stew look like? Tom is going to be a great partner throughout. He brought it our way, and so I’m looking forward to collaborating with him.”

Here, Bateman takes us through some career highs, lessons learned, and a bit of advice from Katharine Hepburn.

My First Lesson On Set

To try your hardest not to be an a–hole, because a–holes are just incredibly disruptive to what is already a very fragile environment. There’s a lot of stress and insecurity and doubt that exists when you’re trying to create fake life. I mean, everybody’s lying. You’re trying to create a big fake world, and it’s hard to do, and you’re trying to do it with a couple hundred people that don’t know one another for the most part, and you’ve got all of that sort of social awkwardness compounded by the technical efforts. When you have an asshole, it’s just incredibly disruptive. I worked with a couple of challenging people early on, and fortunately I had my parents around me to let me know, “OK, you see the way that the crew is reacting to that poor behavior? You want to not do that.” Plus, my first experience on a set was on Little House on the Prairie for a year with Michael Landon as the leader there — the writer, director, producer, star, and he was just incredibly kind to everybody. I started to see sets that were a bit more typical as I got older, where there was some screaming.

The Best Advice I Ever Received

I was very, very lucky to do a job with Katharine Hepburn. I think it might’ve been her last job. I played her driver. It was kind of a Driving Miss Daisy type of dynamic between our characters, and it was a movie of the week for CBS [This Can’t Be Love]. Anthony Quinn was in it as well. And she and I were doing a scene where I had to get emotional, and it was just the two of us. And I remember I was trying to cry in the scene. I guess maybe I was just really pushing or really leaning into it too much, and in the middle of the take, she stopped, and she said, “Oh, stop acting!” And it was crushing to hear in front of the crew and everybody. And I said, “You mean for good, like professionally?” And she was like, “No, no, no. Just say the words. You’re great. Just you don’t need to push and add the stuff. Just be human and say the words and be emotional. Don’t act emotional.” It took me a while to decipher it all, but that was, in retrospect, a very helpful, economical way to tell an actor to stop acting and be a bit more real. I think I was maybe 19 or 20 at the time.

The Part I Always Wanted

I mean, I apologize in referencing one of my own things, but truly DTF.I don’t know if I always wanted to play that part, but given the kinds of parts that I’ve been playing for the last 10 or 20 years — that being sort of a sardonic, cynical guy who knows everything, or thinks he does, that kind of dick — this was playing a guy that’s so naive and lovely and warm and kind and human and vulnerable and without any sort of artifice or veneer. He hasn’t learned any tricks to seem confident or have this kind of fake swagger. It was incredible to have the dialogue and the scenes to support that, and a director-writer [Steven Conrad] that allowed for that, because the character wasn’t really written at that level of vulnerability. He’s a St. Louis weatherman, so any of the assumed polish that might go into somebody like that, there was a bit more of that to the character on paper, a bit more vanity. And I just thought that it might be a more satisfying way to play the character, considering what the finish line was, to play him in much more of an ‘aw shucks’ way, and really in awe of David Harbour’s character, as opposed to being a bit more condescending. I wanted to make him a little bit softer, and I was really happy that Steve let me do that because it was nice to play that, somebody so lovely.

The Most Fun I’ve Had On Set

I think it’s got to be Arrested Development. That group of people was just incredibly funny and talented and kind. And then, all that writing that we got to do every single day, where if you’re not howling with laughter in between takes, you’re trying to keep yourself from laughing while you’re doing the takes. It was just nonstop fun and in a brand of humor that is right up my alley, both the writing and the actors, their own personal sense of humor. And then, on top of all of that, it was a career-saver for me. So, there was great feelings and mood all around.

The Shows And Films That Make Me Cry

Well, anything with little kids in it now. Once I had children, I got really soft. I mean, I cry at commercials now with little infants learning how to walk and stuff like that. I don’t know what happened to me. I can still put on Kramer vs. Kramer and start bawling. I’m sort of dating myself a bit. I’m a big classical music fan, so anytime classical music is under something, it kind of drops me into a place where a lot of my emotions live. So, that’s an easy hack to get me to go. Sometimes, when I have to cry in a scene, I’ll listen on my iPhone to some classical music, and it just kind of drops me into it.

The Part That’s Most Like Me

Well, let’s see. I mean, I don’t know. Since I don’t like to see a lot of acting from actors, I try not to be hypocritical. So, I do try to shape each character that I play into a bit of a part of me. So, I guess all of them would really qualify to a certain extent, but most like me is probably Arrested Development or the Horrible Bosses character or Game Night…

I love being around people that are very eccentric, and that’s potentially a problem, because they’re a lot of fun to hang out with, but you do have to stay on your toes and keep one foot in reality. That can demand some patience with those folks, which is kind of the dynamic I was playing with all those characters, of him being around people that he thinks are less-than, or perhaps even dumber than him, but then his own stupidity is revealed often. That’s always fun to do.

My Most Quoted Role

I mean, it used to be Arrested Development, but really Ozark took over for that. I don’t know if he’s much of a quotable character, but I was really, really excited that that landed with so many people and the formula of that show, that being a very relatable family, a very relatable protagonist, that goes into this extraordinary situation. And somehow we managed to keep it plausible and relatable, such that the audience could go through a very unsettling, vicarious experience. I do get a lot of comments from folks, not necessarily quoting lines, but repeating scenes and moments and instances that have stuck with them.

My Guilty Pleasure

I guess I would say reality TV is usually a guilty pleasure for most folks. And for me, there’s a survival show called Alone that I’m really addicted to and patiently awaiting the next season because I gobble them up so fast. But another thing that I guess would qualify as a reality show is just our political situation. It’s very difficult to stop watching because the narrative, just the escalation, is remarkable.Each episode tops the last, and you keep thinking it’s outdone the last, and you can’t stop watching because you keep thinking the ending is right around the corner. This can’t keep going on at the narrative it’s pitched at. It’s a hell of a finale. I don’t know what that’s going to be, but I do know I don’t want to miss it.

Who’d Play Me In My Biopic

Oh my god. I don’t know. I so admire the guys that do what I try to do, the Ben Stillers and the Paul Rudds and the Ryan Reynolds. They’re so great at being the everyman, the audience’s proxy. I think they’d all do a good job at it, I suppose, but I’m not dead yet.

My Desert Island Shows And Films

I would say the British Office, Fawlty Towers… My mother’s British, so I’m biased. All in the Family. The King of Comedy, which is a Scorsese film with De Niro that was criminally under-watched. 2001. Fargo, I think I’ve seen more than any other film. I’m a huge Fincher fan, so take your pick. They all work for me.