Jason Bateman might be known for playing nice guys with a dry sense of humor, but the 48-year-old actor is making waves and breaking bad with his latest role in Netflix‘s anti-hero story, Ozark.
Playing the role of family man, Marty Byrde, Bateman’s character finds himself as a financial advisor whose side projects involve laundering money for a Mexican drug cartel. But when his colleague gets busted for skimming money, Marty makes a deal that he can launder enough cash in hopes the cartel spare his life, and that of his wife, Wendy (Laura Linney) and two kids as they flee to the Ozarks.
Videos by PopCulture.com
It might seem like something every loving father or husband would do, but as Bateman reveals in an interview for Netflix, he would handle things a little differently.
“I’d be the getaway driver, I think,” he said. “I like to drive fast, take risks, but be protected by somebody with a gun in case I get pulled over.”
In the series’ Marty’s wife is more than obliging to help her husband, but in real life, Bateman says that is something that certainly wouldn’t fly with his own wife.
“My wife would not react too well to that,” he starts. “I would be out before I could finish the sentence. She likes things pretty buttoned up.”
So buttoned up, that Bateman has no idea how to go about laundering $8 million in a real life or death situation because as he reveals, he’s “just a dumb guy in the entertainment industry.”
But while Bateman’s character is a tad crooked, he’s got a redeeming quality that keep audiences coming back for more. After its debut in mid-July, the series got picked up earlier this week for a second season of 10 episodes.
Photo credit: Twitter / @scrappfan