Jason Bateman speaking into a podcast microphone
A Wild Night on the Riviera
Jason Bateman once traded his clean-cut Hollywood image for a night behind bars overseas.
The 57-year-old actor recently revealed he was detained in Europe for a drunken escapade that ended with him in police custody.
“I was arrested in Monaco for being drunk and disorderly in a nice little leopard outfit, fresh from the casinos, all banged up,” the “Ozark” star shared Monday on his “SmartLess” podcast alongside co-hosts Sean Hayes and Will Arnett.
Armed with “cheap champagne and a pocket full of chips,” Bateman admitted the night escalated quickly. “I just got rocked,” he said.
Drawing the Line in 2001
While the “Zootopia” voice actor kept the exact date of his Monaco arrest a secret, his hard-partying days have been firmly in the rearview mirror for decades.
Bateman has maintained his sobriety since 2001, the same year he tied the knot with his wife, actress Amanda Anka, who is also 57.
Speaking about his lifestyle changes in February, Bateman admitted his drinking habits had caused significant “tension” in his relationship with Anka.
“[She] didn’t demand that I completely absolve, but that was sort of the back-and-forth,” he told the Hollywood Reporter.
Realizing he was risking his future, Bateman made an abrupt decision to quit.
“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–king do it,’” he recalled.
Fatherhood and Future Goals
The Emmy-winning actor clarified that while he stepped away from alcohol and cocaine, he still smokes marijuana.
His decision to clean up was largely driven by his ambitions to build a stable career and start a family.
“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,” the “Horrible Bosses” star explained.
Bateman noted that observing his peers hit “pretty chilling” rock bottoms helped him recognize his own limits before it was too late.
Today, Bateman and Anka share two teenage daughters, Francesca, 19, and Maple, 14.
