‘Arrested Development’ Star Jason Bateman Apologizes for ‘Insensitive’ Jeffrey Tambor Defense

“I shouldn’t have tried so hard to mansplain,” actor says after New York Times interview in which Jessica Walter said Tambor verbally harassed her on set

Jason Bateman Arrested Development
Netflix

“Arrested Development” star Jason Bateman apologized for comments in a New York Times interview published Wednesday in which he appeared to defend Jeffrey Tambor after co-star Jessica Walter accused him of verbally abusive behavior.

“I’m incredibly embarrassed and deeply sorry to have done that to Jessica,” Bateman wrote in a series of tweets early Thursday. “I shouldn’t have tried so hard to mansplain, or fix a fight, or make everything okay.”

In the interview, Walter said that Tambor verbally harassed her on the set of the sitcom, now running on Netflix. “I have to let go of being angry at him,” Walter said during the interview. She added that in “almost 60 years of working, I’ve never had anybody yell at me like that on a set and it’s hard to deal with, but I’m over it now.”

In the Times interview, Bateman explained that the behavior Walter described was typical with certain performers. “What we do for a living is not normal, and therefore the process is not normal sometimes, and to expect it to be normal is to not understand what happens on set,” he said. Bateman, along with his co-stars Tony Hale and Will Arnett, were the subjects of intense social media criticism for their comments.

But actor walked back his comments on Thursday. “I sound like I’m condoning yelling at work. I do not,” Bateman said in his tweets. “It sounds like I’m excusing Jeffery. I do not. It sounds like I’m insensitive to Jessica. I am not. In fact, I’m- horrified that I wasn’t more aware of how this incident affected her.”

Update: Not long after Bateman issued his apology, co-star Tony Hale (who was also present at the interview) tweeted: “I have reached out to Jessica personally to apologize. ‘Arrested Development’ is one of my families. Regardless of my intentions, it is clear that my words, both said and unsaid, served to minimize Jessica’s pain and for that I am extremely sorry.”

Read Bateman and Hale’s tweets below.

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