I don't get a chance to cry that often on film, so I was hoping that talent would come my way, that day. I cheated, I guess, when I just started looking at my technology device - my iPhone - to look at pictures of my kids, before I did the scene where I had to cry. That was a good trick that I found.

Jason Bateman

Categorized in : Kids Technology Iphone

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.

Jason Bateman

herbs salmon needs

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.

Jason Bateman

phones hard-work jobs

By definition, gay is smart. I see plenty of macho heterosexual idiots, but nine times out of 10 you can have a great conversation if you find a gay guy.

Jason Bateman

smart gay inspirational

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

Jason Bateman

idols years thinking

I remember my dad working with me on breaking down my script and writing out a back story for my character and all that stuff.

Jason Bateman

dad writing character

I did a good bit of episodic television directing, but directing a movie is so much more complicated. And there's so much more responsibility because the medium is very much a director's medium. Television is much more of a producer's writer's medium so a lot of the time when you're directing a television show they have a color palette on set or a visual style and dynamic that's already been predetermined and you just kind of have to follow the rules.

Jason Bateman

style color responsibility

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.

Jason Bateman

texting appreciate communication

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

Jason Bateman

nice responsibility stuff

My comedic instinct, is a little bit more rooted in - my mother's British so I've always been more of the dry receiver of the crazy as opposed to the initiator of the crazy. I'm kind of predisposed to be the straight man.

Jason Bateman

crazy mother men

I'm not much of a party guy anymore.

Jason Bateman

party guy

I think you get the parts that people are comfortable with seeing you play. I get that. And I don't shy away from those parts.

Jason Bateman

play people thinking

A straight factor is important in any comedy, because you need something to tee it up and also to ground it.

Jason Bateman

comedy important needs

It is one of the few elements in the process that a director really, really can't control: an actor's performance. If you have a director that understands that, it's comforting to an actor. You're starting the relationship more as a collaborator, rather than as an employee or some kind of a soldier trying to execute something you don't organically feel.

Jason Bateman

soldier comforting trying

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

Jason Bateman

diapers occasions mind

Marathons are good training goals.

Jason Bateman

marathon training goal

I really enjoy playing that everyman part because that part is us, the audience. And you need somebody inside a comedy to tether the absurdity to reality.

Jason Bateman

comedy reality needs

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.

Jason Bateman

my-best-friend wife years

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.

Jason Bateman

vanilla normal life-is

I'm not a Hollywood party guy.

Jason Bateman

hollywood party guy

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.

Jason Bateman

technology crazy thinking