Jason Bateman ‘Thought Seriously’ About Hosting a Talk Show Last Year

GQ has a long interview with Jason Bateman out today, in which he discusses Arrested Development and other stuff that’s not Arrested Development, like whether he’d ever like to host a talk show. Here was Bateman’s response:

“That’s interesting, I was just talking about that. Without getting too specific about it, because I can’t, I’ve thought seriously about it as recently as last year. Having just come back from doing a week of talk shows last week [to promote Identity Thief], I was talking to [my wife] Amanda about, in twenty years—when the girls go to college and we can finally move to New York, which is what I’ve been wanting to do forever—if television will have me, I would love to do that. Regis retired at what, 80? So in twenty years I’ll be 64. To host a talk show then, that would be a fun way to do the last bit.”

With recent hits Horrible Bosses and Identity Thief under his belt, Bateman’s busy as an in-demand actor and producer and a budding director, so don’t expect his talk show ambitions to lead him away from the glamorous, high-paying world of movies. It is strange though that he was contemplating a career shift to talk show host last year, and I’m curious to know the specifics of that situation. Even though there’s currently no frontrunner for Jimmy Fallon’s Late Night position once he takes over The Tonight Show next year, it looks like Jason Bateman’s talk show days won’t start until the early 2030s. Set your DVRS (if you can set DVRs that far in advance).

Jason Bateman ‘Thought Seriously’ About Hosting a Talk […]