By their own admission, Jude Law and Jason Bateman are not foodies. And yet, last year they found themselves at a series of tasting menu outings together, choosing among entrees — lamb shank en papillote, a Caribbean-inspired soft-shell crab sandwich — “like we were getting married,” Bateman said. “Like, ‘Do you like that one, honey?’ ‘Ooh, I love it!’”
Law, laughing: “We were choosing side plates, and glasses.”
It was all prep for their new eight-episode limited series, “Black Rabbit,” arriving Thursday on Netflix. Law and Bateman play friction-fueled brothers, and the show, set in a fictional buzzy restaurant in Lower Manhattan, pairs and pits them in a high-stakes dramatic thriller. “The Bear,” with its hero shots of mise-en-place, it’s not. Here, the menus may be delectable, but they are a backdrop.
In a way, the chases and sloppy violence are too. The emotional crux is really about familial bonds laid bare by ambition and greed.
“It goes back probably to the earliest forms of storytelling,” said Law, who executive produced the series with Bateman. “Warring brothers, loving brothers, opposites.”
Bateman, who directed the first two episodes, added: “Structurally, being brothers gives you a bank that allows for massive misbehavior — without destroying the connection.” Marriages can dissolve in divorce. With siblings, “they can literally beat each other up,” he said, and still, “we’re always going to be brothers. You’re [expletive] stuck with me.”
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The post For Jason Bateman and Jude Law, ‘Black Rabbit’ Was the Perfect Bad Bromance appeared first on New York Times.
