“I’m just not one of those actors”: Jason Bateman Has His Reasons for Always Preferring Straight Man Roles

With every role, Jason Bateman established and built on his legacy over the last four decades. Be it as a child star in the ubiquitous great American classic, Little House on the Prairie, or his status as a teenage heartthrob in Teen Wolf, or his dramatic achievement in the Emmy-winning Netflix series, Ozark, Bateman’s range, style, and talent has never failed to deliver on screen.

However, when it comes to his character arcs, the plots only ever showed the actor as a generic everyman around whom the movie’s plot was constructed. His roles, however wacky or eccentric, were always rooted in reality and his functional and socially acceptable lead gave a cushion to his co-stars to explore their quirks without restraint.

Jason Bateman is Happy With His Place in Hollywood

For actors to be labeled with a stereotype or pigeonholed into a certain genre of movie format is almost similar to suffering a death of the soul. The creative spirit that keeps the industry alive slowly rots while studios chase after box office earnings over artistically fulfilling projects. However, such hurdles never bothered Jason Bateman whose 40-year-long presence within the industry has given him a taste of all that he could have. In his third act, Bateman is out to get exactly what he wants.

Preferring roles defined as a generic straight shooter everyman type, Jason Bateman does justice to every project, managing to outshine his co-stars even as he plays the most subdued caricatures who are often the least colorful of all the characters in a story. Films like Game Night, This is Where I Leave You, Arrested Development, Horrible Bosses, The Change-Up, The Identity Thief, and even Ozark play on his strength as the everyman going about his life as a father embroiled in a life of crime, a grieving son, a trivia-enthusiast husband, or an employee caught in his boss’s shenanigans.

Bateman’s roles in such films as the deadpan, generic character give him the freedom to move through scenes with an unbiased and bemused nonchalance, making it easier for the audience to put themselves in his shoes as the movie unfolds itself around him.

Jason Bateman Reveals His Love For Everyman Roles

Despite having nearly 100 acting credits to his name and honing his craft for four decades, Jason Bateman’s love for playing the straight man in a film or television series surpasses his need to prove himself in a career-defining role. In an interview with The Guardian, Bateman revealed:

“These more eccentric characters are – well, it just doesn’t work as well if there isn’t something solid for them to bounce off. So in the interests of making it work, as funny as they’re being, I have to be equally still, because I’m the audience. They’re doing me a favour, too. That’s my dirty secret. People say: ‘Why do you want to play the straight man?’ Well – dropping to a whisper – it’s because he gets to be in every scene.”

He further defended his stance on playing the straight man during an interview with Gold Derby where he claimed:

“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. I’m just not one of those actors.”

After his successful run in Ozark (that won him a Primetime Emmy for Best Director), Jason Bateman partners with Netflix in a creative deluge. His next project, Black Rabbit, will find the actor teaming up with Jude Law as brothers in the limited series. The two stars will executive produce the show while Bateman is set to direct the first two episodes.