Fey, Bateman have off-screen chemistry, too

LOS ANGELES — In the new big-screen adaptation of the best-selling Jonathan Topper novel “This Is Where I Leave You,” Tina Fey and Jason Bateman portray siblings with tight ties that bind.

Just minutes after sitting down with the actors recently as they promoted the sprawling ensemble dramedy, which opened earlier this month, it was clear that Fey, 44, and Bateman, 45, had developed a real-life rapport, as well. A sampling:

Bateman: If it’s chemistry, I guess that’s what they call it — but, we just … she’s a nice lady.

Fey (trying to annoy Bateman by immediately repeating his words in a low mumble): A nice lady …

Bateman: She knows how to …

Fey: I know how to …

Bateman: … remember her lines …

Fey: … remember her lines.

Bateman: And she’s really easy on the eyes.

Fey: I wasn’t going to say that! Thank you.

Bateman: It’s a great combo.

Fey: But it is, for me, maybe it’s such a relief — yeah, for me, it’s a lovely relief to have nice chemistry on screen and know that I never have to do fake make-out. Because it’s nice to play brothers and sisters.

Bateman: Although, there are some very progressive families in the indie world. This is a nice studio comedy.

Let’s talk about two of the film’s other big stars: the Jane Fonda character’s breasts.

Bateman: They hit their mark.

Fey: Well, Jane Fonda’s (actual) breasts don’t appear in the movie.

Bateman: No.

Fey: They’re behind (prosthetic breasts).

Bateman: They stayed in the trailer.

Fey: We couldn’t get them.

Bateman: She really enjoyed everything that today’s special-effects crews can do for someone and I think she may still have them. I think she kept them, I think she took them home.

Fey: She has special Tupperware built for them.

There is very little dirt to be found on the two of you. The best I could come up with was a Vanity Fair piece on how you (Bateman) won’t play Scrabble with Tina anymore because she kept winning.

Fey: We played on set. We played on our phones.

Bateman: It was “Words With Friends.”

Fey: “Words With Friends,” which is a rip-off of Scrabble, and I feel like we should just acknowledge that.

Bateman: They moved the bonus squares around on the board, so they don’t get sued.

The two of you are so funny together, I see another screen teaming on the horizon here.

Fey: This is the first two-straight-person comedy team: Hardy and Hardy.

Bateman: Yeah, which means you can double up on the crazy characters around you, if you’ve got two straight men. That’s what we are.

Fey: If we make a movie, it should be me, you, Melissa (McCarthy) and Jim Carrey, and it’s called “Quadrangle.”

Bateman: Right. That’s called crazy fun.