Jason Bateman & Jude LawTRUE BROMANCE

INSIDE THE BOND DRIVING THE DUO'S HIT SHOW ABOUT BROTHERHOOD, BETRAYAL AND SECOND CHANCES

- Jennie Noonan

The friendship between Jason Bateman and Jude Law blossomed over Zoom. After working with married Hollywood writers Zach Baylin and Kate Susman on the 2024 film The Order, Law had signed onto their next project as an executive producer. As a fan of Ozark - which Bateman starred in for four seasons and won a Primetime Emmy for directing in 2019 - Law was keen to tap his talent to helm a few episodes of the series that would eventually become Black Rabbit (now streaming on Netflix).

“The first conversation was, ‘Do you want to direct it?’” Law told The Hollywood Reporter in September about the fast-paced crime drama, set in the chic New York restaurant and VIP club scene. “I take responsibility fully for being the one who went, ‘Hang on a minute. If he’s going to direct, then he’s got to be one of the brothers. It’s gotta be us.’ And it worked!”

Bateman, 56, signed on as an executive producer and, over the course of a year and a half, the duo helped develop the series about siblings Vince and Jake, former rock bandmates and business partners, who bring out the best and worst in each other.

“We went for dinner about two weeks before we started shooting to make sure we didn’t hate each other,” Law, 52, told Forbes of their first in-person meeting. “Luckily, we didn’t. And that was it. We just hit the ground running.

“You never know. Actors approach acting very differently, and so there’s always a sense at the beginning of sniffing each other out,” he continued. “What was very clear was that he was happy to play and would go anywhere. I also got a sense very quickly that he trusted me as I trusted him. And that meant that we could keep just pushing the boundaries.”