Jason Bateman

OF ‘OZARK’ ON NETFLIX

What is your reaction to your Emmy nominations for acting and directing for Netflix’s “Ozark”? It was obviously a really, really fun and emotional morning. This is a project that I care deeply, deeply about and am obviously completely immersed in. For this show to have received an audience and get the kind of embrace from those voters ... it’s the less earnest version of warming and humbling. It felt great, very encouraging and it’s a nod for everybody on that show because obviously we’re not – this isn’t tennis, it’s not painting. It is a team effort and if any one of them is not doing a great job, we will just clank it. Does Netflix share any viewership numbers with you or any sense of how the show is doing, where it’s doing well? I make a point not to ask because their level of support might lead me to believe that they would tell me things that I don’t think I would want to know because I so appreciate and respect that dynamic of their business. They don’t need to address ratings ... . I get it. And so there are things that affect our creative process that are helpful, like they just shared what time of day or night our show’s usually watched. Is it watched on a television screen versus an iPad or an iPhone? These things I take into the editing room, ... to the sound mix because it’s important to know if you need to factor in ambient light, because if your show’s being watched during the day you’re going to set different brightness levels and contrast levels. If it’s on an iPhone that’s in stereo, you might not grind so hard in the sound mix for this multichannel balance. So these things are important given our venue.