Jason Bateman and wife Amanda Anka were all smiles during a recent red carpet outing after the actor opened up about how his sobriety had eased “tensions” in their marriage.
Bateman and Anka, both 57, posed for photos together on Tuesday, February 24, while attending the Los Angeles premiere for HBO’s original limited series DTF St. Louis at the DGA Theatre.
Bateman — who plays Clark on the HBO show, premiering on Sunday, March 1 — wore a black suit jacket, black undershirt, matching slacks and shoes as he held onto his wife. His hair was shaggy and natural and he had a subtle mustache.
Anka, who married the Arrested Development alum in 2001, pulled focus from her husband while wearing a sexy and sleek merlot dress. The satin frock had gold chain detailing on the straps, and Anka wore matching red crisscross heels.
She also opted for a natural look with her hair, which had a subtle wave to it as she smiled next to Bateman.
The couple’s latest date night came one week after Bateman opened up about his sobriety journey and how a nudge from his wife led him to stop drinking alcohol and doing cocaine sooner rather than later.
“Amanda and I definitely had a few negotiations about the point at which the [partying] spigot was going to completely turn off,” Bateman recalled in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter published on February 18. “She’d be like, ‘This drip, drip, drip is annoyingly unpredictable, Jason.’”
Bateman noted that Anka, who is an actress and producer herself, didn’t “demand” that he “completely absolve” from substances, but he realized that getting sober was the right thing to do for their relationship.
“I was like, ‘Well, I feel like my [sobriety] ETA is six months away, but if I could land this plane now, it would alleviate a lot of the tension, so let’s just f***ing do it,’” he explained.
Bateman has been sober from alcohol and cocaine for decades but joked to THR that he is “California sober,” which is a term for someone who still uses marijuana.
Bateman, who confessed he “got away with a lot” during his party days because social media and smartphones didn’t exist, said that Anka was only part of his inspiration to get clean.
The actor — who grew up in the limelight thanks to roles on Little House on the Prairie in 1981 when he was just 11 years old and Valerie/The Hogan Family when he was a teenager — also wanted to grow his career. Bateman noted he’d seen firsthand how drugs and alcohol could derail that.
“I’ve got friends who had bottoms that were pretty chilling, but I was lucky enough to recognize, ‘This is probably as far as I should go if I still want to accomplish the things that I want to get to,’” the Emmy winner said.
Bateman remembered, “I was conscious the whole time of wanting to get a lot of these boxes checked before I became a father and a guy with a career that I not only wanted but had a feeling I might be able to get it if I just got the right job.”
Anka, meanwhile, has been Bateman’s rock for decades. The pair met in the 1980s but didn’t start dating until 1997.
After tying the knot in 2001, Bateman and Anka welcomed daughters Francesca and Maple in 2006 and 2012, respectively.
“She’s got a full-time career herself, and she’s able to be a full-time mom, and she’s almost a full-time dad too,” Bateman told Luxury Handbag Shopping and other reporters at the SAG Awards in January 2019 of his wife. “I’m just floored by that. So that keeps me grounded. That reminds me that I’ve got a real strong example to live up to.”
