Photo-Illustration: Illustration: Vulture, Images: Getty Images
Considering how dysfunctional the Bluth family was on Arrested Development, it’s considered a miracle that Jason Bateman enjoys spending time with any family, real or on-screen. He told Esquire in his cover profile that while he and his older sister, Family Ties actress Justine Bateman, don’t “see each other a ton,” that doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing. “There isn’t the typical ‘We see each other every Thanksgiving or every Christmas and our kids want to be together.’ There isn’t that. In a great way,” he explained. “Our conversations are the rich conversations you would have with an adult friend, not the kind of petulant back-and-forth you might have with your adult sibling.” Justine also confirmed in September that there’s no rift between her and her brother. “Anyone bringing up my brother to me for any other reason than to say you like his new upcoming show, or any of his past work, will be muted at best, and blocked at worst,” she wrote on X. “I’m not interested in your fantasy about some imagined conflict between the two of us over your political ideologies. Really, it’s sick.” When Trump was elected again in November 2024, she posted that she felt like she was “Decompressing from walking on eggshells for the past four years.”
The little time they do spend together doesn’t mean it never happens; it might just not be around the holidays. Jason concludes, “We hang out, and we’re nice to each other because we respect one another as individuals regardless of the blood thing. I’m seeing her for lunch next week.” Hopefully, they’ll have chocolate bananas for dessert.
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