Should Jason Bateman be One of Your Favorite Actors?

I just finished watching the Netflix original series Ozark featuring Jason Bateman and it brought up the question "Should Jason Bateman be One of Your Favorite Actors?" When people mention their favorite actors I have never heard anyone mention Bateman, most people name Leo, Tom Hanks, Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp, etc. I did a little research and I think Jason Bateman is extremely underrated and should be mentioned among the top actors of today.

Little House on the Prairie, Starsky & Hutch, Smoking Aces, Juno...who do you think all these movies have in common? You got it, Jason Batman plays a role in all of them and more. The variety of roles he has played ranges from comedy to animation to drama to TV to action, he has done everything. He has also had a variety of lead roles and cameos which he has nailed; none of us will ever forget Pepper Brooks from Dodgeball. How many times have you said "It's a bold strategy, Cotton. Let's see how it plays out for them." Well, you can thank Jason Bateman for that delivery. Starting with his TV roles, he has played in some hugely successful shows, Little House on the Prairie, Arrested Development, and Ozark are the three biggest ones. They are all big shows and all three roles he played were very different; Little House is a drama, Arrested Development is a comedy, and Ozark is a gritty, dark crime thriller. Arrested Development and Ozark he was the lead role and really set the table for the show to be successful. Watching Ozark I realized he has never really had this type of role before but he absolutely nails it in my opinion. If you have not seen it, I highly recommend it.

Bateman has starred in some extremely successful movies. His top 5 box office movies are: 1. Zootopia ($341 million), 2. Hancock ($227 million), 3. Juno ($143 million), 4. Identity Thief ($134 million), and 5. The Break Up ($118 million). That list doesn't include Necessary Roughness, Starsky & Hutch, Dodgeball, Smokin' Aces, The Kingdom, or Horrible Bosses. (2 interesting bits of information I found: 1. He was the lead in Teen Wolf Too which was his first movie and has a 3.2 rating on IMDB, way to bounce back from that one. 2. He was in a movie titled Love Stinks in 1999, the reason this is interesting is because French Stewart was the lead and I had no idea he ever had a leading role.) He has played a variety of characters and had a variety of roles, in Starsky & Hutch he plays a supporting role to Vince Vaughn's drug dealing character, in The Kingdom he is a special agent in Saudi Arabia, and in Dodgeball he stars in a cameo role as Pepper Brooks announcer for ESPN 8: The Ocho. Sure he has had his duds but since Teen Wolf Too most of his movies have been successful and good movies.

He has a Golden Globe for his role in Arrested Development and also has a Kids Choice Award for Zootopia. He has also began producing and directing both TV shows and movies. I think he is one of the most reliable actors in Hollywood right now from TV to movie roles. For these reasons I think Jason Bateman should be included in the list of best actors, so next time someone asks you "Who are your favorite actors?" I hope you think back to this article and include Jason Bateman in your list.