Jason Bateman’s Podcast Meltdown Comes With Classic Matthew McConaughey Moment

Jason Bateman had a hard time recording a podcast with guest Matthew McConaughey a few years ago, and he had to relive it this week. McConaughey was the guest on this week’s episode of Smartless – where Bateman, Will Arnett and Sean Hayes take turns surprising each other with celebrity guests. The last time they tried to record with McConaughey, Batemen went into a “total f-ing tailspin.”

McConaughey joined Smartless on Monday, and to kick things off, Arnett embarrassed Bateman with a clip of their last attempt to record. “Oh no, please don’t have playback,” Bateman said with self-effacing dread, but his co-hosts wouldn’t let him off the hook. The audio clips that follow feature Bateman getting furious about technical difficulties on his end, saying: “I don’t see it here in the sound thing so let’s just cancel. Let’s reschedule this thing. I’m in a total f-ing tailspin.” At that point, someone else starts laughing, which infuriates Bateman even more.

“Who the f- is that? Great, that’s helpful,” he says. Bateman said that at the time, he believed either Arnett or Hayes was laughing at him, but he now realizes it was actually McConaughey himself. That only added to his embarrasment.

“Let me tell you what I’ve heard here over the last 30 minutes,” McConaughey said in the old clip before launching into an impression of Bateman. He said: “We’ve gotta reboot here. His iPad got cloned, and then it got wiped right before the dog peed on it, so I gotta reboot one more time.”

Back in the newer recording, Bateman reflected: “It’s not one of my prouder moments. The worst part is me hearing somebody laughing, thinking it’s Will or Sean, and going, ‘Who did that? That’s not helpful.’ And then I slammed my laptop shut, took my ball, and went home like a b-. I was so angry. I think maybe you had told me it was a big guest, so don’t f–k around kind of thing. I just knew I was blowing it.”

“Listen, Matthew, the fact that you’ve come back after that absolute wipeout, I can’t thank you enough,” Bateman concluded. McConaughey was in fact very gracious about the whole thing, and happy to move forward with the interview. He was there to promote his new children’s book Just Because, but he talked about his wide-ranging career and his unique approach to celebrity as well. The podcast is available on most major podcast apps and new episodes premiere every Monday.