Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#330
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Jason Bateman represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 38 years in, and Jason is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Jason Bateman appears in 46 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Jason. Question & Answer is the clearest case: a film rated 8.0 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, quiet performance. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for mystery, comedy, adventure. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Byron Howard, Jaume Collet-Serra, Dan Abraham and others, Jason Bateman helped set a standard other performers now audition against. Awards bodies have been slower than the work, which is usually the sign of a career built on choices rather than campaigns.
Question & Answer (2020) as Self · Zootopia (2016) as Nick Wilde (voice) · Zootopia 2 (2025) as Nick Wilde (voice)
Career snapshot
Ranked #330 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
46
1987–2025
Career length
38 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.0
Question & Answer
Average Nutevio score
6.4
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.3
Once Upon a Studio
Most frequent director
Byron Howard
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Byron Howard
Most common genre
Comedy
35 titles
Average runtime
1h 37m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.1
out of 10
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio metric
Cultural impact and legacy, measured separately from craft — how far the work travelled once it left the cinema.
Nutevio Influence Score
6.6
out of 10
A quieter influence — felt inside the films rather than across the industry.
How far the work travelled past the people who saw it first.
What survives once the release-week conversation has burned off.
Institutional acknowledgement, weighted but never decisive.
Years of chosen, relevant work rather than years merely employed.
Statuettes, read as evidence rather than verdict.
Roles named without needing the film named alongside them.
Directors who wrote parts because this performer existed.
The reading other performers now have to answer.
Actor DNA
A fingerprint derived from the roles themselves — register, range and the kind of film they carry.
The shape of a career
Every performance plotted in time. Hover a point to read the title behind it.
Peak years
Where the scores, the awards and the sheer volume of work agree with each other.
Best decade
2020s
6.9 average MV
The 2020s are where the work and the material meet. Zootopia 2, Carry-On, Once Upon a Studio — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2020s
6.9
Across 9 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2020s
6.9
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1980s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Teen Wolf Too.
Most productive era
2000s
19 films
The busiest stretch of the catalogue — volume that reads as appetite rather than availability.
Range, mapped
Genres down the side, decades across the top. Warmer cells mean stronger titles.
| Genre | 1980s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | — | 6.94 films | 6.36 films | 7.52 films |
| Action | — | 6.64 films | 6.12 films | 6.22 films |
| Thriller | — | 6.73 films | 6.92 films | 6.91 film |
| Comedy | 4.21 film | 6.114 films | 6.315 films | 6.65 films |
| Crime | — | 6.43 films | 6.43 films | — |
| Romance | — | 6.18 films | 6.02 films | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1987Teen Wolf Too
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Todd Howard.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2016Zootopia
8.0 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer. Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2025Zootopia 2
The current state of the argument, as Nick Wilde (voice).
Our order
Every performance in the catalogue, ordered by Nutevio Score.
Every title
Filter by genre or decade, and compare any two titles side by side.
46 of 46 films
as Nick Wilde (voice)
Directed by Byron Howard
as Nick Wilde (voice)
Directed by Byron Howard
as Rich Boyd
Directed by Unknown
as Rob Strasser
Directed by Ben Affleck
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Loading credits…
The defining work
#1
Nick Wilde (voice)
Zootopia (2016)
Performance score8.2
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Nick Wilde (voice) gives Jason Bateman a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Nick Wilde (voice)
Zootopia 2 (2025)
Performance score8.0
Zootopia 2 asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Nick Wilde (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Self
Question & Answer (2020)
Performance score8.0
Question & Answer asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Self is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Rich Boyd
Disconnect (2013)
Performance score7.7
Disconnect asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Rich Boyd is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movieStart here
A guided path through the work, ordered so each film explains the next.
Best entry point
as Nick Wilde (voice)
Start here. Zootopia is the clearest statement of what Jason Bateman does — accessible, 109 minutes, and rated 8.0 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Jason at the most legible performance, then move forward in time so each film reads as a response to the one before it rather than a repetition of it.
Disconnect (2013)
A deliberate change of key after Zootopia — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Question & Answer (2020)
A deliberate change of key after Disconnect — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Air (2023)
A deliberate change of key after Question & Answer — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Zootopia 2 (2025)
A deliberate change of key after Air — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Peter Berg
Director
2 films together
Notably The Kingdom
Jason Reitman
Director
2 films together
Notably Juno
Seth Gordon
Director
2 films together
Notably Horrible Bosses
Josh Gordon
Director
2 films together
Notably The Switch
Jason Bateman
Director
2 films together
Notably Bad Words
Byron Howard
Director
2 films together
Notably Zootopia
Christopher Leitch
Director
1 film together
Notably Teen Wolf Too
Roger Kumble
Director
1 film together
Notably The Sweetest Thing
Todd Phillips
Director
1 film together
Notably Starsky & Hutch
Joe Carnahan
Director
1 film together
Notably Smokin' Aces
Jesse Peretz
Director
1 film together
Notably The Ex
Peyton Reed
Director
1 film together
Notably The Break-Up
Luc Besson
Director
1 film together
Notably Arthur and the Invisibles
Steven Conrad
Director
1 film together
Notably The Promotion
Nicholas Stoller
Director
1 film together
Notably Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Ben Stiller
Director
1 film together
Notably Tropic Thunder
Ricky Gervais
Director
1 film together
Notably The Invention of Lying
Kevin Macdonald
Director
1 film together
Notably State of Play
Peter Billingsley
Director
1 film together
Notably Couples Retreat
Mike Judge
Director
1 film together
Notably Extract
David Dobkin
Director
1 film together
Notably The Change-Up
Greg Mottola
Director
1 film together
Notably Paul
Dax Shepard
Director
1 film together
Notably Hit & Run
Peter Glanz
Director
1 film together
Notably The Longest Week
Shawn Levy
Director
1 film together
Notably This Is Where I Leave You
Joel Edgerton
Director
1 film together
Notably The Gift
John Francis Daley
Director
1 film together
Notably Game Night
Benny Safdie
Director
1 film together
Notably Question & Answer
Andy Fisher
Director
1 film together
Notably Live in Front of a Studio Audience: The Facts of Life and Diff'rent Strokes
Ben Falcone
Director
1 film together
Notably Thunder Force
Charlie Day
Director
1 film together
Notably Fool's Paradise
Ben Affleck
Director
1 film together
Notably Air
Dan Abraham
Director
1 film together
Notably Once Upon a Studio
Jaume Collet-Serra
Director
1 film together
Notably Carry-On
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Byron Howard
Director
2 films together · 7.8 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
ZootopiaJason Reitman
Director
2 films together · 7.1 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
JunoPeter Berg
Director
2 films together · 6.7 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The KingdomSeth Gordon
Director
2 films together · 6.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Horrible BossesJason Bateman
Director
2 films together · 6.2 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Bad WordsJosh Gordon
Director
2 films together · 6.0 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The SwitchBenny Safdie
Director
1 film together · 8.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Question & AnswerDan Abraham
Director
1 film together · 7.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Once Upon a StudioAndy Fisher
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Ben Affleck
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
AirJaume Collet-Serra
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Carry-OnJohn Francis Daley
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Game NightGreg Mottola
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
PaulKevin Macdonald
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
State of PlayJoel Edgerton
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The GiftBen Stiller
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Tropic ThunderShawn Levy
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
This Is Where I Leave YouNicholas Stoller
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Forgetting Sarah MarshallJoe Carnahan
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Smokin' AcesLuc Besson
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Arthur and the InvisiblesDavid Dobkin
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Change-UpRicky Gervais
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Invention of LyingMike Judge
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ExtractPeyton Reed
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Break-UpTodd Phillips
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Starsky & HutchDax Shepard
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Hit & RunPeter Billingsley
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Couples RetreatRoger Kumble
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Sweetest ThingBen Falcone
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Thunder ForceSteven Conrad
Director
1 film together · 5.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The PromotionJesse Peretz
Director
1 film together · 5.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The ExPeter Glanz
Director
1 film together · 5.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Longest WeekCharlie Day
Director
1 film together · 4.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Fool's ParadiseChristopher Leitch
Director
1 film together · 4.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Teen Wolf TooSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Recognition
4 wins
1 win · latest 2005
as Actor
1 win · latest 2019
as Actor
1 win · latest 2019
as Actor
1 win
as Actor
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
Zootopia
as Nick Wilde (voice)
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Once Upon a Studio
as Nick Wilde (voice)
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Zootopia
as Nick Wilde (voice)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Arthur and the Invisibles
as Darkos (voice)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Zootopia
as Nick Wilde (voice)
If the career had to be argued in a single scene, our editors would pick one from this film and rest the case.
In their films' words
“You can build a whole film around a performer who knows when not to speak. Jason Bateman has known it for a long time.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
38 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Modern Classic Performer
Awarded
Defining performances delivered inside the last twenty-five years, in films already being taught rather than merely remembered.
Comedy Legend
Awarded
35 catalogue titles in comedy, each one a reference point for the films that followed.
Our desk
Best ending, best opening, best twist and the rest — categories we apply to everyone we cover.
Best ending
Zootopia 2
as Nick Wilde (voice)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Zootopia 2
as Nick Wilde (voice)
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Up in the Air
as Craig Gregory
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Game Night
as Max
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Zootopia
as Nick Wilde (voice)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Smokin' Aces
as Rupert 'Rip' Reed
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Once Upon a Studio
as Nick Wilde (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Zootopia
as Nick Wilde (voice)
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Tom Hanks
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
David Krumholtz
Built a career in the same territory: action and adventure
Cillian Murphy
Built a career in the same territory: drama and history
Have your say
Community
Which Jason Bateman performance holds up best?
Our readers argue about this one. Make your case, or read the ranked debate already in progress.
Join the conversation
Reference
Continue exploring
Trending performers
Directors they work with
Collections to read next
