151 Insightful Jason Bateman Quotes

I'm a guy who is a little bit complicated and is a little bit in his own head and is not the most free-spirited, fun-loving kind of guy.

  

Improvisation, for me, is when the cameras start rolling, we don't know where we're going and let's just waste people's time and money.

  

As an actor, you get hired for what you last did. And I guess it just becomes your choice or obligation to do different things.

  

When you're actor, you have no idea how much work goes into pre-production. We're just sitting in our trailers waiting for someone to knock on our door to go to the set.

  

I'm in bed by nine. Let's get on with it.

  

If I'm enjoying something, I'd like to be able to just have it all. Frankly, that's the way I'm approaching my career now. I'm a total workaholic.

  

I'd worked so hard that by the time I was 20, I wanted to play hard. And I did that really well.

  

I play around with my Japanese Garden. Since Im half way to 70 today I need to start pruning trees and sharpening plants like an old fart.

  

I love a massage. I'd go every day if I could.

  

I don't worry about people misinterpreting my kindness for weakness.

  

I just love doing sitcoms. I'd be in them till I was gray if they'd have me.

  

I'm not a 'celebrity'. I'm not a big huge star and so when people see me it's usually to talk about something I've done and that's a great conversation to have.

  

Directing a movie is the greatest job in the world. I could not be more envious of the guys who get to do it all the time.

  

I don't really find a problem with technology or television, or anything. I'm a product of it. I grew up watching TV, and I don't think I'm too dumb or too crazy.

  

I'm not a Hollywood party guy.

  

I don't have anything to fix! I don't smoke, I don't drink, and I don't eat carbs. My life is just great now. Normal. Vanilla.

  

My hobbies have varied over the years. There were a whole set of new ones before I got married. Now I spend as much time with my wife, who is my best friend.

  

I actually enjoyed changing diapers and I enjoyed swaddling. I don't mind being swaddled either, on occasion.

  

I can be on a telephone call, and be emailing or texting somebody else, as well. I would imagine everyone appreciates that efficiency of communication. I see it as a huge positive.

  

I like being hired to do more and more stuff. Carry more and more responsibility. It's nice I'm getting that trust.

  

I'm not much of a party guy anymore.

  

I think anybody who's doing work in their teen years on TV or in the movies, you're a teen idol by default.

  

What's frustrating as an actor, when you want to work hard, you can only work once that phone rings and then you can only work until the production wraps. Then you have to find another job.

  

I love a massage. I'd go every day if I could. I don't need to be wrapped in herbs like a salmon fillet, but I do love a massage.

  

It's a really exciting thing to collaborate with production designers, cinematographers and gaffers and costume designers and editors and composers.

  

Actors, by very definition, we want people to pay attention to us, and so usually, that comes in the package of insecurity. So if we're not comfortable, we don't really show you a lot.

  

On the whole, a director who make the set a comfortable place to work is really important, whether it's a comedy or drama.

  

Music is such an incredibly affecting part of any movie-going experience, and it just... it shapes your whole experience.

Experience , Music

  

I enjoy editing when I'm directing, but when someone else is directing, that's their film to cut.

  

We had, like, the greatest time you could ever imagine doing 'Arrested Development.' And as grateful as we are for the careers we have afterwards, it was - we still miss it.

Time

  

I look at whatever the finish line is for the character and then kind of act backwards from that and play him in such a way so that that finish line is more rewarding.

Character

  

I was very surprised to get a reading for 'Arrested Development' because it really seemed to be the opposite of that which I was known for doing.

  

The people at Netflix are extremely intelligent about the way they monitor activity on their platform.

  

I'm looking forward to playing Michael Bluth many, many more times.

  

I owe everything to 'Arrested Development.' It just shows that everybody is kind of a job away from having relevance again.

  

I really appreciate comedy a lot.

  

My family is pretty funny. My mother is British, so she's got a very dry sense of humor. That's where I got that from.

Family

  

Pre-production and post-production is something that I've never been exposed to. I was pleasantly surprised that you could accomplish a lot during pre-production.

Never

  

To have the privileged position of being the guy who is responsible for shaping the entire experience for an audience as opposed to being just one instrument in that orchestra, being an actor, it's all-encompassing.

Experience

  

Directing films is incredibly exciting to me.

Me

  

My upbringing as a child was very atypical.

  

I haven't met a lot of 'Hogan Family' fans.

Family

  

I don't want to be obnoxious with my ambition or sound like I expect any sort of entitlement here. Hollywood is not in the business of humoring people.

  

Actors are sellers, and I figured out a long time ago that if you wanted to work a lot, you had to be on the buying side.

Time

  

You hit those valleys sometimes and it's really frustrating. It's like getting stuck in traffic on the freeway. But there's not much you can do about it.

  

That's kind of the fun part about acting. We do get the right to kind of get from A to Z any way we want, as long as we start at A and end at Z.

  

I'm a pretty normal guy. I'm really good at knowing how a normal guy would react in situations.

  

I think you get the parts that people are comfortable with seeing you play.

Think

  

I think NBC got a little reluctant to get behind single-camera shows after 'Scrubs' didn't do what they thought it was going to do following 'Friends.'

Think

  

If you make a mistake, people are going to know about it really fast - and I was making a ton of them when I was a kid.

  

It was a blast. I was doing everything that teenagers do and everything people in their twenties do. I was playing as hard as I was working, which was an effort to really balance my life.

Life

  

I was doing everything that a kid would be doing anyway, but on top of that, I was able to fly to different cities.

  

You want 100% and 100% to make 200, instead of 50 and 50 making 100.

  

I'm not talented enough to drop everything and become somebody different.

  

I'm never happier than in the bed.

Never

  

I really empathise with some of my peers who had success in the early years; then it dries up, and so there's no reason to get up in the morning.

  

The kids can't watch 'The Wire,' but there's great educational stuff for them to watch on TV if it is TV time. There are great apps on the iPad that are interactive and educational.

Time

  

I don't really find a problem with technology or television or anything. I'm a product of it. I grew up watching TV, and I don't think I'm too dumb or too crazy.

Think

  

I think the Internet is a huge positive.

Think

  

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.

Me

  

When you're playing a supporting character, you don't really have a lot of control of the quality of the film.

Character

  

People say: 'Why do you want to play the straight man?' Well, it's because he gets to be in every scene.

  

Ideally, that's what you've got in an acting career is an equal number of dramas and comedies and an equal number of small films and big films.

  

Nothing would make me happier than doing nothing but drama for the foreseeable future.

Me

  

I can't assume that my kid is going to make the best decision all the time.

Time

  

I'm not that great of an actor, so I can't, like, completely become somebody else.

Like

  

I try to figure out how much of the character I can find in myself because you don't want to get outside of your skill-set.

Character

  

There are worse things than being constantly hired to do anything.

  

I didn't really watch 'Beavis & Butt-head' that much or 'King of the Hill,' but I was a huge 'Office Space' fan.

  

I'm just going to try to stay employed. That's the tough part in this business.

  

There's a bunch of different flavours of funny. It's all about the execution of it.

  

If you laugh, we just do another take. Laughter is too rare nowadays. If you can bust a gut, let it go, and we'll just go back to one.

  

I like to give my daughter some rope and let her make her own decisions.

  

I did a good bit of episodic television directing, but directing a movie is so much more complicated.

  

I'm not a big, huge star, and so when people see me, it's usually to talk about something I've done, and that's a great conversation to have. That's what we're doing it for.

Me

  

My mother is British; she's from Shrewsbury. She turned me onto 'Monty Python' very early.

Me

  

It's not new: In the '70s, Archie Bunker said terrible things on 'All in the Family,' but it was all in Carroll O'Connor's performance. You saw lack of intelligence, and you laughed.

Family

  

I'd much rather have the freedom, and the obligation to use it responsibly, than be put in a box.

  

Our kids will never have to remember things, because it's all in pictures. Want to remember your fourth birthday? There'll be video of it on your phone.

  

I think it's always a good time to be in a political film in America because there's so much material for comedy.

Think , Time

  

It's very difficult to pretend you're throwing a car.

  

I just think technology is pretty amazing. Like all things that are great, you have to be responsible about how much you use it.

Think

  

As disciplined as I am, I'm also a huge hedonist.

  

It's not a sprinter's approach. It's more like a long-distance thing. You can stick around a lot longer if you kind of slow-play it.

Like

  

I've been fortunate, but I'm also not very precious about making sure I'm the star of a film.

  

It earns you a lot of snark if you're able to convey vulnerability.

  

If you're stumbling out of a bar, and people tweet about it, well, don't be dumb. If you're going to get falling-down drunk, stay at home - which I did a lot of.

  

I don't feel sorry for people in the public eye getting eyed by the public.

  

People still come up to me and say, 'Hey, 'Teen Wolf!' 'Teen Wolf Too' closed a week after it opened. Where did they see it?

Me

  

Acting has always been very comfortable for me, so it allows me to pay attention to other parts of the process literally while I'm acting.

Me

  

I looked around at the relationships that were the longest in my life, and they were the ones I had with my friends. I thought, 'If I only wanted to get married once, I should probably marry a friend.'

Life

  

My father was a freelance writer/director/producer, and my mother was a stewardess for Pan-Am. It was very non-traditional.

  

I was never at a place where rehab would have been appropriate.

Never

  

Our job as actors is to just try to be as accurate and as mindful of what the audience is going through and receiving and processing.

  

It was like 'Risky Business' for 10 years. My parents were out of town, they left me a bunch of money, the car, and the house, and I didn't know when they were coming home.

Me

  

My sense of humor lies a little closer to the middle.

  

The comedy community is very friendly right now. I think that's why you see all the synergy and people doing each other's movies.

Think

  

I only wanted to get married once, so when I felt I was ready to handle it, I looked at my relationships and noticed that boyfriends get tired of girlfriends, and vice versa, but you never get tired of your friends.

  

I think anybody who's doing work in their teen years on TV or in the movies, you're a teen idol by default.

Think

  

Jennifer Aniston and I have always just really gotten along well... I was just fortunate to be a good fit for parts in her films.