Before Ozark, Arrested Development, and movies like Horrible Bosses, Jason Bateman got his start as a child actor in Little House on the Prairie. The actor recounts the hazing done to him by the older cast members and how he got his revenge.
Appearing on Shawn Evens’s Hot Ones show, Bateman was asked if it was true that the older kids played a prank by telling him his on-screen character was dead.
“Untrue,” answered Bateman.
“What they did do is they pinned me down on the ground, straddled me with knees on my shoulders and gave me noogies or whatever they call it on my chest,” he added to Evans’s shock.
The 56-year-old actor admitted to details of the hazing where “they knocked on my chest like I was a front door.” But even at a young age, Bateman knew how to get even with his on-set bullies and how to get them to leave him alone.
Bateman decided to even the score and went to the makeup artist on set and told them to “Put a big black-and-blue mark all over my chest.”
With “evidence” of the hazing, Bateman went to the parents of his co-stars and tattled on them. He showed them the fake bruise and got all of them in trouble.
Little House on the Prairie was Bateman’s first acting role in 1981, having started his career in commercials. He played James, the adopted son of Caroline and Charles Ingalls, for 21 episodes in Season 7 and 8. He appeared alongside actor Missy Francis, who played his on-screen sister. A few years later, the actor played Derek Taylor in the 1982 sitcom Silver Spoons.
Bateman currently stars, and is the executive producer and director, of the Netflix crime thriller, Black Rabbit. He played Vince Friedkin alongside Jude Law.
