Awards Circuit Podcast: The 'Black Rabbit' star/director and 'DTF St. Louis' star/producer on his multiple nominations and more. On the Awards Circuit Roundtable, we look at the state of the race as Phase 2 voting continues.
Jason Bateman is this year’s Emmy overachiever, nominated for lead limited series actor and limited series directing on Netflix’s “Black Rabbit,” and as both supporting actor and executive producer on another limited series, HBO Max’s “DTF St. Louis.” So where does the multi-hyphenate’s brain reside more in these days, as an actor or director? Acting at an early age became so comfortable for me that I was able to really observe all the incredible work going around me.
All the technical work of the camera and sound and lighting and what might be happening with editing later. So I’ve always thought about all of that — what a team it takes.” Bateman, of course, has been acting since he was a child — “Little House on the Prairie,” “Silver Spoons,” “It’s Your Move” and even “The Hogan Family” as a teen. But he also started looking at directing as a young actor.
Louis.” Bateman talked about all that, as well as his next project — and he took the Awards Circuit Podcast 10 Questions Quiz! — on this edition. Also in this episode, we look at the latest moves in the Emmy race as Phase 2 voting continues — and marvel at the variety special (prerecorded) category, which includes a showdown between Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter and Ariana Grande. Is Bateman stunned at the Emmy surplus he’s been given this year with his four nominations?
There are so many people that go into making these things and making them not fall flat on their face. It’s a miracle that any of these things work because the ball is constantly wanting to drop … I just feel so fortunate.” Bateman also notes that he has the luxury of choosing projects and characters who have such a unique and interesting tone. Both Vince in “Black Rabbit” and Clark in “DTF” are tragic in their own ways.
Yet they are both just heartbreakingly relatable, human and flawed, and they just don’t have the coping skills that most of the viewers have.” Next up, Bateman just directed the film “The Cackling of the Dodos” for Netflix. It’s a dark, dark comedy about these two guys who run a farm and they find a dead body in the grain bin and try to figure out how to get rid of it — and create a couple of more dead bodies doing it. It’s kind of like an old Coen Brothers-type of film.” For Bateman’s first time in Variety, we found a clip from Nov. 16, 1979, announcing that he had signed with the Dorothy Day Otis/Jack Rose Agency.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
