Tony Hale says he and Jessica Walter were on good terms before her passing: 'I love Jessica very much'

• Hale came under fire for defending "Arrested Development" costar Jeffrey Tambor's behavior towards Walter.
• "We did [talk], I love Jessica very much," Hale told Insider.
• Walter died on March 24 of natural causes. She was 80.

Tony Hale says he and "Arrested Development" costar Jessica Walter were on good terms before her passing in March.

Hale, who played Byron "Buster" Bluth on the six-time Emmy-winning show, came under fire following a 2018 New York Times interview with the cast of the show when he and costar Jason Bateman played down the behavior of fellow costar Jeffrey Tambor when Walter spoke out during the interview about a time Tambor got extremely angry at her on set.

"Her husband had passed away in 2019 and we were back and forth about that," Hale told Insider in an interview on Thursday promoting his upcoming Disney Plus series "The Mysterious Benedict Society." "We did [talk], I love Jessica very much."

During the 2018 Times cast interview, Walter got emotional talking about the incident on set with Tambor, who played George Bluth Sr. on the show.

"I've never had anybody yell at me like that on a set," said Walter, who played Lucille Bluth on the show. "And it's hard to deal with, but I'm over it now."

Bateman tried to play down Tambor's behavior.

"Not to belittle it or excuse it or anything, but in the entertainment industry it is incredibly common to have people who are, in quotes, 'difficult,'" he said.

Hale added by saying: "We've all had moments ... Not like that. But I'm saying we've worked together 15 years, there has been other points of anger coming out."

Both Bateman and Hale apologized for their remarks on Twitter.

Today, Hale thinks more about the "genius" of Walter rather than the spats some of the cast members had.

"How ["Arrested Development" creator] Mitch [Hurwitz] wrote a line to land, no one could land it better than Jessica," Hale said. "Her timing and the way she crafted it to land was just magic."

"Her character was so biting but it was done in the most fun and beautiful way," he continued. "My favorite joke of her's was when she goes 'It's a banana Michael, how much can it cost? $10?' But here's the thing, when Jessica did it her character Lucille Bluth was so vile and done so effortlessly it was like she genuinely thought a banana cost $10. Nobody could do it better than her."

Walter died in her sleep at home in New York City on March 24. She was 80.

"Arrested Development," which followed the daily lives of the dysfunctional Bluth family, ran for three seasons on Fox from 2003 to 2006. After being canceled, it became a cult hit. Netflix brought the series back for a fourth (2013) and fifth season (2018-2019).