Bateman recalls ‘terrible toilet seat’ set

Jason Bateman shared a “terrible toilet seat” with his This Is Where I Leave You castmates.

The actor stars alongside Jane Fonda, Tina Fey, Adam Driver, Connie Britton, and Rose Byrne in the forthcoming dysfunctional family dramedy.

And Jason reveals they shot the picture in very lacklustre surroundings.

“It was a big, beautiful house, so that did help. And we all really liked each other, which was helpful. But it was hot, and it was an old house. There wasn't air conditioning, but we brought some of that in. We had to share one bathroom with a terrible toilet seat,” he recalled of the set to Examiner.com.

Producers decided not to build replicas of these rooms on a soundstage due to budgetary reasons.

But Jason appreciates the discomfort he and his castmates felt while filming as the setting brought them closer together.

“There was a lot of good bonding there. So it was really fun,” he gushed. “It was as close as a working actor can get to summer camp.”

Jonathan Tropper adapted the This Is Where I Leave You screenplay from the novel he published in 2009.

Jason found the script particularly appealing because of its sophisticated approach to dialogue.

“What I think is kind of interesting about it is that there's not some big, high-concept story,” he explained. “It's just about a family getting together and talking about stuff. That's obviously going to be a marketing challenge, but for us, as actors, that's what you want. It's not our job to figure out how to sell it but just try to figure out how to be believable with it. There's great writing in it. People talk good in this movie. That's about it.”

This Is Where I Leave You is released in US theatres September 19.