Jason Bateman appears in the April issue of GQ magazine with a little feature talking about how much he loves to swear. There’s a good reason for the focus of this interview. Jason is promoting his directorial debut, Bad Words, which combines the premise of Bad Santa with a spelling bee. He plays a 40-year-old “bitter genius” in the movie who finds a loophole in the competition’s rulebook that allows him to compete against children. It sounds bizarre and offensive and satirical.
Jason doesn’t seem concerned about the broad-base appeal of this movie. He recently told the Calgary Hearld how the film is “challenging to watch,” but it was a “privilege” to direct. My guess is that he gives Billy Bob Thornton (and Cameron Diaz in Bad Teacher) a run for their money in the bad taste department. The poor child actors in this movie must be scarred for life. Here are some excerpts from Bateman’s GQ talk:
What did you learn from the directors you’ve had? “I’ve got a pretty good idea about what kind of set you need to run to get the best out of everybody. And usually that’s a set that’s not being run by an a-hole. To put it bluntly.”
Do you actually swear anywhere near as often as your character? I tend to use as many as I can think of. I don’t do it around my 7-year-old, but I do around my 2-year-old, because she doesn’t know what the hell I’m saying yet.
What’s your go-to swear word? M-therf—er is pretty good.
Best way to insult a kid? Check the kid out and see what the quickest way to make them cry is. No, having two little girls now, I don’t know if I could ever insult a kid anymore. I’ve turned into such a softy. My daughters will never see this movie.
Was it hard to memorize how to spell all those words? I had all of them written on big whiteboards just off-camera. Yeah, I’m not that bright.
Ever compete in a spelling bee? I did–lost early on the word answer. I forgot the w. Not bright.
Any advice for a kid stumped by a word? Scream “m-therf—er.”
[From GQ]
I wish Bateman plenty of success in this movie endeavor because it touches upon two important elements of my childhood: spelling bees and curse words. My dad swore like an Italian sailor (is there such a thing?) every time he made dinner. I won’t go into specifics on that one, but it was hilarious. I try very hard not to let such words fly in front of my daughter, but it happens. Spelling bees do not bring back such fond memories. Everyone remembers the word that put them out of the school spelling bee, right? Mine was “electricity.” I was so angry that they gave me that word as a 3rd grader. Then the 4th grader who won only had to spell “ladder”! Such injustice.
Anyway, Jason needs to be careful about swearing too much in front of his toddler. Kids pick up that sh-t so easily.
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet & WENN
Ha, I cuss like a sailor everywhere but near my nephew, although I guess it doesn’t really matter since he learned all the bad words from his parents. His favorite go to swear word is m*therf**ker as well. (he was there the day my brother tried to change a tire)
Yes, I curse around my 8 year old but he knows better than to repeat it. It’s do as I say, not as I do.
I heard Jason Bateman say mother_ucker before and he sounds so sexy saying it. I adore him so much. I wish he was a friend of mine. Damn you Aniston, I envy your friendship with him.
The last time I swore in front of my parents was when I was around seven or eight. I didn’t exactly get in trouble for it (I said the word ‘bitch’), but we had a really looong conversation about swear words, and they told me that pretty much that was my only warning. Haven’t said any in front of her or my dad again.
I don’t actually curse all that much, despite my mom having a potty mouth—I like to type out my curse words for artistic flair……on here at least 🙂
And V4Real–that’s how my mom is. She says we can say whatever we like out of earshot, but we can’t say it in front of her. Which doesn’t bother me. That’s my mama.
VC I wonder if your mom gave her then 21 year old husband that same warning if he sweared…LOL. I swear some of your stories have me in stitches such as the one from yesterday.
Oh…V4Real…my sister’s 26 now, and my mom gave her a list of curse words that she’s allowed to say in front of her. My mom’s from Jackson, Tennessee, so she’s hard on things like that…..but she’s pretty fun most of the time.
But not my dad–ooh, he used to swear a lot worse than her. By the time they got together, she cut down her swear words A LOT, especially as I was only four at the time. But he used to curse about ten times worse than her….every other word out of his mouth was a swear–he cut it down too.
GORGEOUS MAN.
I just love him. Waaah.
I thought at age two kids start repeating everything? Even with a potty mouth, I still love Jason Bateman – it’s Arrested Development that made me like him as an actor.
You’re right they do repeat it, though they might not always understand what it means.
I just love him. And my two older kids both yelled “G*ddammit!” when they were very young at rather unfortunate times – because their mother has a potty mouth, lol!
I have to curb mine before we have kids. We went out to celebrate with friends the other night, and I went home more inebriated than usual – apparently I sprawled out across the whole bed, and when the fiance came to bed he tried to gently move me, and I whipped out my best Samuel L Jackson snakes on a plane kind of language.
Unfortunately, I work in a very male dominated office, and the curses come flying out pretty frequently. Not much hope in me easing off unless I make a super conscious effort.
Eh, I’m German and cursing is not a big deal here. Everyone I know says “shit” and “damn” when something goes wrong. I think calling people names is alot worse.
This is also my view. Shouting f4ck it when you stub your toe is a lot better than calling someone fatso or four eyes or whatever nasty name is de rigueur in the playground these days.
Children are smarter than we think they are. Right from the start, they understand rules and standards vary depending on the situation: Grandma might make you take off your shoes at the door but you don’t have to at home; Mum might turn a blind eye if you do say f4ck it when you stub your toe, but your teacher won’t. And Mum won’t either if you call your brother a f4ckwit OR if you call him an idiot. Etc.
Whoops. 🙂 Love Jason Bateman, though that is probably going to come back to bite him at some point. When I was five I helpfully told my sister (who was 3) all of the “bad words you aren’t supposed to say.” She told my mother–not to get my in trouble, but as more of a, “Guess what Aquarius told me” moment. The one and only time I’ve had my mouth washed out with soap. She swears often enough now, and her sons are 5 and almost 7. They haven’t embarrassed her yet, but I’m sure it will come. 😉
Ha, that was funny!
Splinter, it is *now*, yes. 😉 Liquid soap? Not so yummy. The thing is, I remember that, but I don’t remember the actual incident of the “telling.”
I wouldn’t be surprised if he was just joking- he’s got a pretty dry, sarcastic sense of humor, which only makes him more awesome.
I have a feeling all of your statement is true. I don’t see him as a mass swearer and he is awesome.
I hope he’s kidding. I think people swear too much now and use swear words out of laziness and lack of vocabulary. I don’t think it’s the end of the world, but I would try not to teach my kids to express themselves that way.
I’ve heard that argument before and it’s not always out of laziness or lack of vocabulary. If I stub my toe or smash my finger it’s just more conveinent to say damn as oppose to ouch, I stub my toe, gee that hurts. I’m not concern about being proper when I’m in pain. I will use whatever one word phrase that comes to mind. S_it, damn, f_ck, whatever comes out. I also use Go_dammit a lot when I forget something important. I do feel bad about that one because it’s kind of using the Lord’s name in vain.
It bugs me when people use super harsh language ALL the time, every other word is f***. I swear, usually when people annoy while driving or I hurt myself, but there are some situations where it is just not good.
@V4Real, oh I absolutely agree. Sometimes the most or even only descriptive word is a swear word. I just mean people who habitually swear ten times in every sentence and don’t seem to know any other descriptive words.
I’m ‘terrible’ when it comes to swearing even in front of my kids. I do temper it in front of other people’s. But the thing is I’ve always told them that they are adult words and when they’re 18 they can use them too. And they believe me. Of course my oldest is now 12 so she might work out that’s BS pretty soon!
The funny thing is that to them swear words aren’t the unacceptable ones. The worst word isn’t the f-bomb, it’s the s-bomb…. Stupid.
I think his movie will be better than Bad Santa/Teacher because he has a charm about him that BBT and Diaz don’t have. Well, I mean it could still be a terrible movie but he’ll be awesome in it.
Love, love, love Jason…the trailer for the movie is hilarious…I can’t wait to see it!
I have a pretty salty tongue myself. I tried to stop when my kids were little, with varying degrees of success, but lately I’ve been slipping big time. I always apologize to them for cursing. I know my 13-year-old swears (not around me). I’m ambivalent on how bad cursing is. I think it’s unattractive and maybe a bit lazy, but words are words. There is a reason we have swear words. I don’t think Bateman is doing any harm, although it will come back to bite him when baby starts talking!
My word in the county spelling bee in third grade: separate. I will never forget that “a rat” made me lose. I’ve spelled it correctly ever since.
I can’t wait to see this!
Careful Jason, unless you’re prepared to deal with another “landlord Pearl”.
😀
Where’s my f*ckin’ money?!?
We were on a military base for eight years, till my husband was medically retired, and I had to enforce a No Cussing In The House Rule because when we were in church my two year old daughter decided to use her very “colorful” vocabulary when she hit her head on a seat… It was soooo embarrassing… Plus there was a no using GD, p***y and see u next Tuesday because I CAN’T stand those words!!!
Kids hear worse in school and on the streets. No big deal.
Bedhead, let me tell you this—my mom swore like a sailor when she had my oldest sister at 22. Which, you know, kind of made sense because she *was* in the Navy, and had been since she got out of school that point.
Well, she told me that a lot of her friends told her that she swore too much, and she kept telling them no–at least up until she heard my older sister, at TWO YEARS OLD calling her baby doll a ‘bitch’ while she was playing one day…..
OMFG! That made me laugh so hard! Calling a doll B*tch! Hee!
I love, love, LOVE him. I’ve had a crush on him since Silver Spoons. In 4th or 5th grade, my friend lived next door to his family, so we’d always invent reasons to knock on his door for a sighting. Never worked. Turns out just saying you’re a Girl Scout with no actual uniforms or cookies to sell isn’t so convincing. His mom was a good gatekeeper!
Love this man. That said, I don’t know that there are many parents nowadays that don’t curse at some point in front of their kids. When I’m angry, stuff flies out of my mouth that shouldn’t. And my husband can weave a tapestry of profanity equal to that of Ralphie’s dad in A Christmas Story. My son knows he’s not to repeat any of it. But even if we never uttered a bad word in front of him, there are plenty of situations where he does hear curse words where I have no control over it. Been in a play ground recently? You would be stunned at what comes out of their mouths. I’m talking about the kids, not the parents. Standing on line in a fast food place, the people working behind the counter talk as if they are hanging out instead of working, with no regard to the fact that a kid is standing there. The cashiers in my grocery store regularly talk about hooking up and their personal lives among themselves as they ring up my groceries. The guys at the deli throw around the word f**k as they cut the deli meats. The kids walking home from the junior high up the block from our elementary school. It has really become impossible to shield your kids from it, so while I am wrong for uttering it in front of him, he hears it anyway. You just have to teach them not to repeat what they hear.
I have a filthy mouth, but not around my kids. I go to great effort to NOT swear in front of them. So yeah, it really sucks when at daycare they have kids whose parents have no filter whatsoever. I’ll never forget when my son was three and potty training. In the middle of Thanksgiving dinner at my in-laws, I mentioned he should go to the potty and he SHOUTED “shut up, bitch!” Dead silence all around as all eyes turned to me. It’s a funny story now but DAMN was I pissed off then. And yeah, when I brought him to daycare the next time and talked to the director, we all know exactly where he over heard it ( another three year old with, ummm, questionable adults raising him).
I love Jason Bateman and I think he is hilarious. I will definitely see the movie. And as much as I know it isn’t appropriate to swear in front of kids, there are worse things in the world. Words are symbols to which we have attached a meaning, nothing else.
I think there are lot worse things in the world than cursing in front of your kids.
Eh, I swear around my kid as does my husband. She has used the ‘f’ word as an expression of frustration, which is A Okay with me. It’s ridiculous to be offended by a word like that when so much crap worth being upset about is going on around us. If she were to use it as an insult against someone, then we’d have to talk with her about it. We never say anything like that around her — speak ill of someone around her, etc. I think that’s a worse precedent than F- bombing because you stubbed your toe.
I swear in front of my six year old and I dont care if she does it at home, and long as she uses tge words approriately. She knows not to use them anywhere but home and not in front of her grandmother, and not to use them to hurt people. No big deal.
That’s exactly what I was gonna write. I always swore around my son, but he was smart enough to know that you can only do it in front of certain people, and there are times when you just cannot do it.
My parents didn’t swear around me at all and yet I curse like a sailor. Kids are going to learn it somewhere. Their friends, the movies, hearing it in public – it’s pretty much impossible in most circumstances to keep kids from learning certain words.
Unfortunately i to swear around my kids but ive taught them not to use naughty words which are swear words but also any word that can hurt someones feelings and i taught them that when i swear to call me out on it and say mommy you’re naughty thats a naughty word and then i let them have the talk with me…best part was my sons first naughty word was this year during the deep freeze he found out school had been cancelled again and slammed his hand down and said this is bullshit right away he said im sorry mommy i know its a naughty word but i just want to go back to school…my daughter on the otherhand has a potty mouth she doesnt cuss anymore but she loves calling people jerks or dummos which are naughty words
I swear in front of my kids all the time. And I let them swear. To me it’s just words. But they
were taught early on that it’s only in the privacy of our home and only in front of specific people, and never in front of other children. At home, all is fair. In public, never had a problem with them slipping.
What a fun interview please more JB.
Dear god. There are so many other things that make a bad parent, this doesn’t even register. I was allowed to curse but not at school because my mom didn’t want to deal with my bitchy teachers’ phone calls.
Words are nothing more than a form of expression, and to give certain words more power than others is to willingly put limits on yourself. An intelligent person who isn’t afraid of “bad words” just uses them as they are intended–sparsely.