Key Points
Jason Bateman was arrested while wearing a “leopard outfit” in Monaco.
Although he didn’t disclose when the arrest took place, Bateman said he was “drunk and disorderly.”
The actor has been sober for at least 20 years.
Jason Bateman‘s arrest story sounds like it could be turned into a movie.
The actor recalled being booked in Monaco during an undisclosed time on his Smartless podcast Monday with cohosts Sean Hayes and Will Arnett, and their guest Timothy Olyphant.
After Olyphant shared that he’s never been arrested, Bateman, 57, launched into his own tale of disorderly conduct overseas.
“It happened to me once,” Bateman shared of his first and only arrest. “I was arrested in Monaco for being drunk and disorderly in a nice little leopard outfit fresh from the casinos, all banged up on cheap champagne and a pocket full of chips. Just got rocked.”
Bateman has been sober for years, abstaining from alcohol and drugs except for marijuana. He told The Hollywood Reporter in February that his acting career was always more important than partying, and that shortly after booking Arrested Development in 2003, his bacchanalian days were over.
“Fortunately, I was living at a time without social media and camera phones, so I got away with a lot, but it was definitely close a few times,” Bateman told THR.
He added, “I’ve got friends who had bottoms that were pretty chilling, but I was lucky enough to recognize, ‘This is probably as far as I should go if I still want to accomplish the things that I want to get to,'” he said. “I was conscious the whole time of wanting to get a lot of these boxes checked before I became a father and a guy with a career that I not only wanted but had a feeling I might be able to get it if I just got the right job.”
His wife, Amanda Anka, also inspired Bateman to clean up his act.
Jason Bateman and Amanda Anka
Credit: Monica Schipper/WireImage
“Amanda and I definitely had a few negotiations about the point at which the [partying] spigot was going to completely turn off,” he told THR. “She’d be like, ‘This drip, drip, drip is annoyingly unpredictable, Jason.'”
Bateman insisted Anka “didn’t demand that [he] completely absolve,” but there was consistently a back-and-forth about the topic. “I was like, well, I feel like my [sobriety] ETA is six months away, but if I could land this plane now, it would alleviate a lot of the tension, so let’s just f—ing do it.”
Adding further context to his comments in THR on Jimmy Kimmel Live later that month, Bateman explained, “Part of what’s in there is I liked to party during my 20s and stuff, and then put that stuff down when I was 30, 31, something like that. So that’s like 20, over 25 years ago.”
Bateman and Anka now share two daughters, Francesca, 19, and Maple, 14, and he is a self-professed “softie” dad.
“I love it all,” he told THR of being a home with his family, “the slippers, the fireplace, the nesting.”
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When Bateman won a Actor Award in 2019 for Ozark, he thanked Anka and their girls for being his ultimate supporters.
“I would like to say specifically though to my wife, my two daughters ― Amanda, Franny and Maple ― without you, none of it would be enjoyable and it probably wouldn’t be possible,” he said. “I love you more than I even tell you I do, and I’ll be home for kisses so don’t go to bed. Amanda, pop a mint, I’m going to come give you yours in about five minutes.”
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