Jason Bateman is getting flak on social media for a seemingly awkward interview moment on the latest “SmartLess” podcast episode in which he asked Charli xcx about having children and then told her she might change her mind about not wanting kids. The Grammy winner stopped by the podcast to promote her new A24 movie “The Moment.”
The topic of children came up when Bateman, who has two children with wife Amanda Anka, asked Charli: “Would you love to have more than one kid or would you like to have a kid that has the same experience as you, the only child, and then you get to nurture and protect?”
When the pop star responded by saying “I actually don’t really want to have kids,” co-host Sean Hayes replied: “You don’t? Wait, why? I know that’s none of my business…”
Hayes noted that he also does not want to have kids, explaining: “I want to want to have kids… I’ve said it a million times, but I’d rather regret not having kids then have them and regret it later. You never know what you’re going to get.”
“That could change,” Charli said about her stance on becoming a mom. “I love the fantasy of having a child like naming it — it sounds so fun — but I’m like, that is exactly assigned to me as to why I should not have one, the fact that [naming it] feels like the coolest part about it.”
Bateman then told Charli that she might change her mind and pulled from personal experience by telling her: “I mean I guess I’m backing into giving myself a half-assed compliment here, but my wife did not want to have kids, so the story goes. She said once we started going out she thought, ‘OK, I think I can have a kid with this guy.’ So you might find somebody.”
“Well, I am married,” Charli informed Bateman, noting her nuptials to the 1975 band member George Daniel.
“I got to read a newspaper one of these days,” Bateman wisecracked in response before joking: “Your next husband, you’re gonna want kids.”
The conceit of the “SmartLess” podcast, hosted by Bateman, Hayes and Will Harnet, is that one of the hosts brings on an interview subject without telling his fellow hosts, which means at least two of the co-hosts each episode can’t prepare for the interview or research their interview subject. That might explain why Bateman has no idea Charli is married.
Variety has reached out to Batman’s representative for comment.
As reported by The Independent, social media users and Charli xcx fans were quick to defend the pop star against Bateman’s comments. The interview was branded “disgusting” and an “incredibly rough listening experience” by users on X, with one Reddit user commenting: “Why the fuck does society continue to pressure women, in particular, about having kids?”
