Jason Bateman explains why he and filmmaking sister Justine don’t spend much time together

Jason Bateman has opened up about his “adult” relationship with his older sister and why they don’t see each other too often.

The Ozark star’s only sister, Justine, 59, is also a fellow filmmaker and actor, best known for her roles in Family Ties, Men Behaving Badly and Desperate Housewives.

In a new interview with Esquire ahead of the holidays, Bateman, 56, shared that he and his sister aren’t the kind of siblings who get their families together every Thanksgiving and Christmas.

“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,” he said, clarifying: “In a great way. 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.”

Bateman added: “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.”

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Elsewhere in the interview, he revealed that both he and Justine had “a peer relationship with our parents; they were our managers.”

The Game Night actor has previously spoken about his strained relationship with his parents due to their involvement with his career. In a 2008 interview, he shared that he and his sister supported the family with their paychecks from their early roles. “I don’t think there are many people who would say that was a healthy situation,” he said.

Bateman’s father, Kent, 89, is a director and film producer, while his mother, Victoria, was a former flight attendant.

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Bateman was just 10 when he first started acting, landing his first significant role as James Cooper Ingalls in seasons seven and eight of the beloved Western drama Little House on the Prairie in 1981. He later went on to star in the family sitcom Valerie (formerly The Hogan Family), as well as the short-lived sitcoms Simon and George and Leo.

In 2003, Bateman cemented his reinvention as a leading adult actor when he took on the sarcastic, deadpan role of Michael Bluth in the acclaimed sitcom Arrested Development.

Justine was also a child actor, earning her breakout role as Mallory Keaton in Family Ties at the age of 16. She starred on the show through its entire seven-season run from 1982 to 1989.

Bateman’s latest project, Zootopia 2, was released in theaters late last month. It comes nearly 10 years after the first instalment, and has been well-received by critics, with The Independent’s Clarrisse Loughrey finding it “far better than the original.”