- Jason Bateman said he nearly ran over Michael Jackson while he was riding his bike as a kid.
- The actor shared the childhood story in an appearance on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" on Friday.
Jason Bateman said he almost ran over Michael Jackson while riding his bike around Universal Studios as a kid.
The "Ozark" star shared the anecdote in an appearance on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" Friday. During the interview, Kimmel rattled off the names of celebrities from the 1980s and asked Bateman if he ever met them. Bateman started his career as a child actor on "Little House in the Prairie" in 1981, according to IMDb.
When Kimmel named Jackson, Bateman told him that he and fellow child star Ricky Schroder bumped into the singer while filming the NBC sitcom "Silver Spoons" at Universal Studios. The actor said they had their bikes with them on set because "kids gotta play."
Bateman noted that Jackson was on set to see Schroder and shot the audience an uneasy look, seemingly referring to the child sex abuse allegations lodged against the singer. After the audience reacted to the story, Bateman sarcastically said that Jackson was "a fan of the show and a fan of the Ricker."
"He was coming onto the stage while we were zooming off and, uh, almost took him down," he concluded.
Bateman is still interacting with big names on the podcast "SmartLess," which he hosts with Sean Hayes and Will Arnett. David Letterman joined the actors for one of their live episodes in New York in February — but Bateman was convinced the comedian wouldn't remember him from his appearances on Letterman's talk shows.
"[Letterman] goes, 'Well, you really left a mark on that show.' So I was like, very excited that he did remember me, but then quickly brought down to Earth because he said, 'Because you will just not shut up.'"
The "Arrested Development" actor added that he was "mortified" when Letterman told him he talked so much that the show sometimes had to reduce the amount of time it went to commercial.
"They couldn't book a second guest. I was a double-block guest," he said.