{"id":29739,"date":"2025-09-21T20:13:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T20:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/29739\/"},"modified":"2025-09-21T20:13:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T20:13:10","slug":"jude-law-jason-bateman-on-brothers-ending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/29739\/","title":{"rendered":"Jude Law, Jason Bateman on Brothers’ Ending"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t[This story contains MAJOR spoilers from the Black Rabbit<\/a> finale.]<\/p>\n

\n\tOn paper, Jude Law<\/a> and Jason Bateman<\/a> share a surprising number of things in common. They\u2019re both proud fathers to young adult children. They both have startlingly blue eyes. And despite growing up on opposite sides of the Atlantic in the \u201970s and \u201980s, they both started acting young and found success quickly in America: Bateman made a name for himself as a teen actor (and the DGA\u2019s youngest-ever director) on The Hogan Family, while Law broke out as a heartthrob at the turn of the millennium in The Talented Mr. Ripley.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut while they presumably ran in the same Hollywood circles for years, Law and Bateman had never sat down to have an in-person conversation until they were just days away from playing badly behaved brothers in Netflix<\/a>\u2019s Black Rabbit, which they also executive produced.<\/p>\n

\n\tCreated by King Richard screenwriter Zach Baylin and his wife Kate Susman, the eight-part series<\/a> stars Law as Jake Friedkin, the savvy owner of Black Rabbit, a fictional Brooklyn-based restaurant with an exclusive VIP lounge. Jake\u2019s plans of parlaying the success of the clubby restaurant into running fancier establishments are upended by the unexpected reappearance of his chaotic older brother \u2014 and former business partner \u2014 Vince (Bateman), who had fled the state years earlier to avoid paying a hefty debt to\u00a0 menacing mobster Joe Mancuso (Troy Kotsur).<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile he initially returns to New York <\/a>in need of urgent help from his seemingly well-to-do younger brother, Vince quickly learns that Jake has been hemorrhaging cash. \u201cAs we all know, it\u2019s fucking hard to make money nowadays, and to maintain a lifestyle and that presentation of who you want to be,\u201d Law tells The Hollywood Reporter in a joint interview with Bateman (who also directed the first two episodes). \u201cI like the idea that, in the end, these two guys from Coney Island are still just \u2018chancers\u2019 \u2014 and one is maybe more honest than the other.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tVince\u2019s return quickly unravels Jake\u2019s carefully curated life<\/a>, thrusting both of them back into the dark underbelly of the Big Apple. Over eight episodes, the brothers find themselves at the mercy of Mancuso \u2014 a former family friend \u2014 and his vicious henchmen, and they are forced to confront the emotional scars of growing up with an alcoholic father, who had gambled away his own restaurant.<\/p>\n

\n\tDespite vowing to do better, Vince reaches a point of no return in episode six. After Mancuso\u2019s mercurial son, Junior (Forrest Weber), threatens to kill him and his loved ones, Vince reluctantly agrees to help Junior carry out an armed, masked robbery at Black Rabbit, where Jake is hosting a party with millions of dollars\u2018 worth of expensive jewelry.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat fateful robbery, first teased in a flash-forward during the premiere, is doomed from the start. Wes (\u1e62\u1ecdp\u1eb9\u0301 D\u00ecr\u00eds\u00f9), Jake\u2019s long-time artist friend and one of Black Rabbit\u2019s biggest investors, gets shot and later succumbs to his injuries in the hospital. And in a last-ditch attempt to stop Junior from shooting Jake, who recognized Vince even through his ski mask, Vince shoots Junior in the head and then flees the scene.<\/p>\n

\n\tKnowing that his life will never be the same, Vince secretly gets his affairs in order. He makes sure his estranged daughter is taken care of. He comes clean to Jake about killing their father decades ago with a bowling ball to stop him from abusing their mother. (Jake reveals he knew all along, and loved Vince anyway.) In a bittersweet final twist, after confessing to the police over the phone about his involvement in the robbery, Vince jumps off the roof of Black Rabbit, leaving a shell-shocked Jake to grapple with feeling untethered to \u2014 and unburdened by \u2014 his brother for the very first time.<\/p>\n

\n\tJust hours ahead of the show\u2019s world premiere at TIFF, Law and Bateman opened up about the agony and ecstasy of their first collaboration, which the latter describes as a twisty tale about \u201cwhat we forgive in those who we are related to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/p>\n

\n\tYou both boarded Black Rabbit as stars and executive producers less than two years ago, but Jude was attached first after working with Zach Baylin on Justin Kurzel\u2019s The Order. Jude, is it true that you called Jason up and asked him to play your onscreen brother-in-crime?<\/p>\n

\n\tJUDE LAW (Laughs.) Not quite that directly. We knew he\u2019d been approached and had seen the potential that we all saw. The initial conversations were, \u201cPlease come on and direct this,\u201d because we knew that it had all these facets that he had proven to be so adept at juggling with Ozark in particular. I think we had a pilot-ish and an overview of where it was going, but we needed to be in the hands of someone who knew how to take this on.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs a producer at that early stage, you just want to encourage it to manifest, to grow. I\u2019m not one of these [actor-producers] who\u2019s like, \u201cBy the way, I\u2019m playing that part,\u201d because I think especially when you go to a director, you don\u2019t want to go, \u201cPicture this \u2014 and me.\u201d I knew I wanted to be one of the brothers, but in truth, I just wanted to see the piece realized. So the first conversation was, \u201cDo you want to direct it?\u201d I take responsibility fully for being the one who went, \u201cHang on a minute. If he\u2019s going to direct, then he\u2019s got to be one of the brothers. It\u2019s gotta be us.\u201d And it worked!<\/p>\n

\n\tJASON BATEMAN Then we had to decide who\u2019s going to play who.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tJude Law and Jason Bateman in Black Rabbit.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNetflix<\/p>\n

\n\tJude, you\u2019ve spoken about how you vividly remember being in the same New York restaurant scene in the late \u201990s and early aughts that Zach and Kate used as inspiration to create the world of Black Rabbit, so it was probably more of a natural fit for you to play Jake. Jason, why did you want to play Vince?<\/p>\n

\n\tBATEMAN It was through conversations with Jude, Zach and Kate, and fortunately, they were just as excited about the notion of me playing the brother that you don\u2019t usually see me play.<\/p>\n

\n\tLAW Zach had seen you in [the 2009 film] State of Play. He loved you in that.<\/p>\n

\n\tBATEMAN Right, that squirrelly dude. And I enjoy playing that part. I just don\u2019t usually lean into that part, because I like being the audience. I like being the protagonist, the person that everything is funneled through to manage tone and all that kind of stuff. That\u2019s the director side of me coming through.<\/p>\n

\n\tLAW What he can\u2019t say \u2014 and what we all know \u2014 is that he has innately, as an actor, this humor. There\u2019s a wryness. There\u2019s an intelligent, humorous kind of smirk to what he\u2019s doing or the shit he\u2019s involved in. And what he brings to Vince, which is so great, is you get why Jake forgives him. You get why the world forgives him and still wants him at the party, because you go, \u201cOK, he burnt the place down. But he\u2019s such good company.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBATEMAN It was fun while we were in trouble!<\/p>\n

\n\tLAW It was fun! And you can\u2019t fake that. If anyone else would\u2019ve played Vince, you\u2019d have gone, \u201cThis guy is a fucking train wreck.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBATEMAN \u201cWhy is he still doing that?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLAW \u201cWhy is anyone putting up with it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBATEMAN \u201cIt\u2019s unbelievable!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLAW That elevates what is at the heart of the piece, which is what we forgive in those who we are related to. Jason said recently \u2014 and I just thought it was so spot-on \u2014 if we\u2019d been buddies, you\u2019d have been annoyed at our relationship: \u201cOne of you\u2019s just got to go away and leave this [relationship].\u201d Brothers are a very different thing. There\u2019s this incredibly complicated backstory that bonds them, and you see them as children literally in our show, so that was key.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen you think back to your earliest conversations with Zach and Kate about Black Rabbit, how did those discussions inform the way you thought about playing your respective characters? How did you come to understand or justify the underlying reasons for their bad behavior?<\/p>\n

\n\tLAW You get over-complicated if you try and justify the characters you\u2019re playing. I\u2019d say the same about me: I\u2019m not trying to justify my behavior. I behave because of certain things that have affected me through my life, that have led me to this moment. That\u2019s what you\u2019ve got to understand, as an actor, and just go, \u201cWho is this person? Why are they doing this? What are their patterns?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tI was keen that you had to want to stick with Jake as well. I wanted him to be trying to make himself better. You know that he\u2019d misbehaved in the past. He\u2019d probably slept around too much, he\u2019d probably done too many drugs, but he was really trying to get his shit together. It seemed really exciting to me that here\u2019s a guy who\u2019s probably just turned 50 like me, and he\u2019d probably think, \u201cOkay, my past is behind me. I\u2019ve got a good future. This [business] is going to be successful.\u201d What he doesn\u2019t count on is the whirlwind that arrives that reminds him of all that shit and brings it all back in.<\/p>\n

\n\tSo there were little things that were a little more present in early drafts \u2014 affairs, bad behavior, drug use \u2014 and I was just like, \u201cNah, I think that makes him a bit sleazy. It\u2019s fine that that\u2019s hinted at, but that\u2019s not who he is now.\u201d Another detail that I thought was key was bringing up his affair [with Estelle, Wes\u2019 girlfriend, played by Cleopatra Coleman] into real time, so it wasn\u2019t something that had already started [before the show]. You\u2019re seeing him trip into it, and as you get to know him better, you understand that old habits die hard.<\/p>\n

\n\tBATEMAN I\u2019m a big fan of letting writers write, and as an actor, your job is to fit what is in existence before you start acting. That\u2019s just the math of it all. So when I\u2019m in a privileged position of being able to have a seat at the table in the creation of a character and the progression of how that character is written, I\u2019m really just looking and watching out for things that run counter or are at odds with what I\u2019m excited about playing.<\/p>\n

\n\tSo, in this case, it\u2019s really important for Vince to be deeply flawed. Anytime something would be brought up that makes him too capable in a certain area, then that might make my plan for how to play him invalid. Zach and Kate never really put anything in front of me that made it impossible for me to do the version of Vince that I knew would be the best yin to Jake\u2019s yang.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tBateman as Vince, Law as Jake in the finale.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Netflix<\/p>\n

\n\tVince and Jake are both addicts \u2014 the former is addicted to drugs and gambling, while the latter is addicted to his own brother. Jake has a habit of always giving Vince second chances, but seemingly reaches his breaking point in episode five. After they were both forced to strip while being held at gunpoint by Mancuso\u2019s son Junior and associate Babbitt (Chris Coy), the brothers have a blowout fight on the side of a highway in their underwear, and Vince ultimately punches Jake in the face. How did you approach shooting that confrontation?<\/p>\n

\n\tLAW We worked very hard at that. We loved the extremity that they were both pushed to by Junior and Babbitt, so we knew that [the fight] had to be extreme. We knew that there\u2019s a wonderful kind of humorous desperation, in that these guys are literally left with nothing. I mean, it is funny, but it\u2019s also sad. It\u2019s like the difference between seeing someone falling over a banana skin from far away and close up. If you\u2019re far away, it\u2019s funny; if you\u2019re close up, it\u2019s fucking painful.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut the physical interaction, first of all, there was a practical approach, and we were meant to have a full-on, rolling around fight [on the concrete]. I\u2019m glad we debated it, because I think that one piece of physical violence is so much more upsetting and shocking. That is a good demonstration of how we all worked \u2014 we would question things. Sometimes, there\u2019s a suggestion of it on the page, and [we\u2019re] like, \u201cYeah, but is that too much? How can we take that and distill it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBATEMAN Oftentimes, writers will write something that really makes things clear for the reader, but once you marry that with performance, you might need to say less. In this case, I started thinking about the practicalities of that [scene] \u2014 being in our underwear with no shoes on \u2014 and that it would be really difficult to believably scrap and fight the way they were talking about, because think about what that would do to your feet, your knees and your elbows. We can\u2019t do that over and over again. So we started thinking about, \u201cWhat is the goal there with that [fight]?\u201d And what they were looking for was to marry the absurdity of this brother, scrappy fight and the very real, honest drama of what they were saying. So what is that proper cocktail mix?<\/p>\n

\n\tLAW It\u2019s funny that they\u2019re in their underwear, but it would\u2019ve been funnier if they were rolling around. Actually, at that point, it ain\u2019t funny \u2014 it\u2019s really sad. Also, they just faced death. That\u2019s not funny. I mean, they were this close to taking a bullet. So, to see them fighting around and scrapping like you would do naturally, there may be the odd person that would go, \u201cOh, that\u2019s funny.\u201d It wasn\u2019t meant to be. So, like I said, the idea of just a single punch to the face of your own brother is an awful thing to both instigate and to receive.<\/p>\n

\n\tBATEMAN And to have it all be set against the absurdity of them just being in their boxers. They\u2019re having one of the more important conversations they have in the show with no winking, complete seriousness. [They\u2019re talking about how] they\u2019re never going to see each other again \u2014 and cut to, they\u2019re in their underwear walking away. (Laughter.) So that was a really exciting thing to try to find the right tone for while we were shooting it.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe moment that really took my breath away, as a viewer, is at the end of episode six when Jake realizes that Vince is the one holding him at gunpoint during the robbery at Black Rabbit. Vince was wearing a ski mask, but Jake would recognize those eyes anywhere. Jason, how did you understand Vince\u2019s decision to rob his brother\u2019s \u2014 and his own former \u2014 restaurant? Jude, can you give voice to Jake\u2019s inner dialogue once he comes to that heart-wrenching realization?<\/p>\n

\n\tBATEMAN Vince is obviously very prone to petulance, so a lot of the reason behind that decision at that moment sits with him being petulant. He\u2019s also desperate. He\u2019s sitting in the car with Junior. He thinks he\u2019s on his way to get killed by Junior, but Junior says, \u201cNo, I want you for a job,\u201d so he\u2019s not really in a position to say no. And he\u2019s pretty pissed off, still, from the scene we were just talking about where Jake is saying, \u201cI never want to see you again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSo there\u2019s a feeling of vindictiveness and petulance that\u2019s in there, but there\u2019s also a practicality to it, too. He\u2019s leaving, and he\u2019s going to need some startup money to get his life going, and [he thinks] maybe this is a good thing. And ultimately, we see that he wasn\u2019t really that sure about screwing over his brother, by virtue of what he ends up doing there at the end [by shooting Junior].<\/p>\n

\n\tLAW I love the complexity of every decision made in this. I think bad writing sometimes highlights itself when you watch drama where every decision is full of conviction. I don\u2019t know about anyone else in life, but I\u2019m constantly contradicting myself, and that\u2019s what makes life so complicated. And you\u2019re trying to keep up with someone else, whether it\u2019s a sibling or partner, going, \u201cWait, why did you just do that? But you said \u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tI don\u2019t know that I can answer what he feels when he realizes it\u2019s his brother who is behind the balaclava and the one holding the gun that\u2019s in his face. I can surmise it. There\u2019s the obvious pit in your stomach sickness. I think he knows at that moment that it\u2019s over \u2014 but not to the extent that it gets to.<\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019ll put it like this: The reason [the restaurant\u2019s] called Black Rabbit in my mind is \u2026 it was a kind of escape for these boys. First of all, it was a band. \u201cWe\u2019re going to get out of here. We\u2019re going to make money. We\u2019re going to get laid. We\u2019re going to get high. We\u2019re going to be cool.\u201d And then the band became a bar, the band became a brand. Holding onto that, monetizing it, making it sexy, and making yourself relevant \u2014 all of that was this entity that, yeah, [Vince] had realized, but that [Jake] would make real. I think, suddenly, [Jake realizes] that\u2019s all fucking over. I think it\u2019s like, \u201cThere\u2019s no way, with these guns going off, that we\u2019re ever coming back from that. Vince, you took the big needle and you stuck it in the balloon, and the balloon has finally popped.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBATEMAN It\u2019s a massive disappointment. But then 30 seconds later, he saves your life.<\/p>\n

\n\tLAW That\u2019s right! (Laughs.)<\/p>\n

\n\tBATEMAN So you don\u2019t really have time to sit in the devastating disappointment of this ultimate, fucking thing.<\/p>\n

\n\tLAW I remember Justin [Kurzel, who directed episodes seven and eight] said, \u201cSo how are you going to play the aftermath?\u201d I said, \u201cI know. I\u2019m just going to be in \u2026 (stands up unexpectedly and mimics a deer in headlights) total shock.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBATEMAN Which was awesome. But then you let it boil over, and you\u2019re screaming [at me] on the phone. You have those moments there with your head against the brick, just kneeling on the ground. It\u2019s just gorgeous \u2014 and all of that without me. I wasn\u2019t there. I was back in L.A., probably. He was working all this stuff out with Justin, and it\u2019s so well-calibrated. And then the scene with your ex-wife.<\/p>\n

\n\tLAW Yeah, that was crazy. [I was] hyperventilating! (Laughs.) And she\u2019s going, \u201c\u2026 I think you\u2019re having a panic attack.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBATEMAN Yeah. But the way in which all of that editorially was constructed too \u2014 I was just so happy with it all.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tLaw as Jake in the finale.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Netflix<\/p>\n

\n\tThere\u2019s an explosive, unpredictable quality to nearly all of Jake and Vince\u2019s one-on-one scenes. As siblings, they are the only people who can really call each other out on their shortcomings, but they also revert back to a kind of childish dynamic whenever they\u2019re together, where they\u2019re constantly yelling at each other.<\/p>\n

\n\tLAW The script had a lot of that [brotherly dynamic] already there. There were all these great head-to-head scenarios where they were suddenly having to either confront each other, and a lot of the dialogue was there. Because, really, that childish interaction is based in love, right? You love this person very much, even if you\u2019re the kind of brothers who don\u2019t necessarily say it. But they really love each other. When you love someone, you are allowed to reveal petty feelings and use language that you\u2019ve been using for 50 years towards each other. We tapped into that very quickly. It\u2019s that funny, weird thing when you\u2019re playing a scene with someone, and as soon as someone goes there [and takes a real risk], you go, \u201cOh, I can go there, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBATEMAN What\u2019s nice about how the two brothers help each other is that they\u2019re really encouraging the other one to do the right thing \u2014 and they both do. Obviously, [Jake] convinces [Vince] to do the right thing. He probably wasn\u2019t encouraging him to kill himself, but [Jake\u2019s] like, \u201cGet out of your own way. Help your life and help those around you by stop being such a fuck-up.\u201d Vince basically makes the ultimate sacrifice to clear the decks and allow Jake to live this life that neither one of them were really great at doing individually, but maybe once one of them\u2019s gone, now he can go forward.<\/p>\n

\n\tVince was also trying to get Jake to be a little bit more authentic: \u201cStop being full of shit. Spend less money on the artifice and be a little bit truer to yourself, to your kid and your ex. Get rid of the big fancy place in Soho, and stop dressing like a douche bag and driving this weird car.\u201d So everything goes back to basics. At the end, obviously, things on paper have never been worse for Jake. But really, probably, the future\u2019s never looked better for him, because he\u2019s pushing off of a really genuine, authentic, solid base, and he\u2019s now going to live a more genuine life. So if you really search for what this show could maybe be about, it\u2019s really these two brothers helping each other live the best version of this duo.<\/p>\n

\n\tThere\u2019s a dreamlike coda, set to Ella Fitzgerald\u2019s \u201cManhattan,\u201d that reveals what happened to all of the surviving characters. Jake is seemingly at peace working as a bartender at someone else\u2019s New York restaurant. Jude, how did you want to play Jake\u2019s reaction to Vince\u2019s death, and where do you think we leave him without Vince?<\/p>\n

\n\tLAW Jason was very clear and helpful in overseeing the rhythm and the arc of this story so that you\u2019re maintaining an audience, but also, for those involved in acting, [you\u2019re considering] when you\u2019re giving and what you\u2019re giving. My sense was that you couldn\u2019t see resolution in the immediate aftermath [of Vince\u2019s suicide]. I think in that situation, you are so shocked, and I\u2019m really glad that you don\u2019t see Jake doing the look [over the ledge to see Vince\u2019s dead body] or going downstairs or calling the police. I mean, why do you want to see all that? That\u2019s shoe leather. You want that sense of, \u201cIt\u2019s over,\u201d and we talked a lot about this sense of the city suddenly coming into his life, and maybe for the first time hearing things, weirdly, with clarity. So that\u2019s what I was trying to get to.<\/p>\n

\n\tIf you notice, he doesn\u2019t really break down until he sees Mancuso. Because when the guy says, \u201cWhere\u2019s your brother?\u201d and for him to actually say \u2014 it makes me want to cry \u2014 \u201cMy brother\u2019s dead.\u201d All those little beats were considered, because we knew we then had to have a little grace note at the end, which is, \u201cThis is what he\u2019s learned, and this is how life moves on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/p>\n

\n\tBlack Rabbit is now streaming all episodes on Netflix.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[This story contains MAJOR spoilers from the Black Rabbit finale.] On paper, Jude Law and Jason Bateman share…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29740,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[19674,146,85,46,19675,19676,400],"class_list":{"0":"post-29739","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-black-rabbit","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-jason-bateman","13":"tag-jude-law","14":"tag-netflix"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}