Jason Bateman On Life In His Early Twenties: 'It Was Like 'Risky Business' For 10 Years'

Updated 11:00 PM PST, Wed, Jul 8, 2009

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Jason Bateman has revealed his days as a child star put him on the road to the excess.

The star of former FOX television series "Arrested Development," which is heading for the big screen, told Details August 2009 issue that after working hard on shows like "Silver Spoons" as a youth, he went astray as a young adult.

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"It was like 'Risky Business' for 10 years," the 40-year-old told the mag of his life in the '90s . "My parents were out of town, they left me a bunch of money, the car, and the house, and I didn't know when they were coming home. I'd worked so hard that by the time I was 20, I wanted to play hard. And I did that really well."

Bateman credits running into a friend on their way to AA, after his wife, Amanda Anka, left town following a substance abuse ultimatum, as the impetus for cleaning up his act.

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"I was never at a place where rehab would have been appropriate," he told the mag of his substance abuse. "Booze was what would make me want to stay out all night and do some blow or smoke a joint or whatever, so shutting that off was key. It's like ketchup and French fries — I don't want one without the other. So that's the moment: Do you want to continue being great at being in your twenties, or do you want to step up and graduate into adulthood?"

Nowadays, Bateman has shifted his interests to healthier obsessions like baseball. In fact, he even attends sporting events with pal Keith Olbermann, who has a penchant for the numbers.

"We go to Dodgers games and he spends the entire time keeping score, not saying a word," Bateman said. "It's perfect."

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