Jason Bateman apologises for defending Jeffrey Tambor in an interview

"Arrested Development" star Jason Bateman has apologised for downplaying co-star Jessica Walter's comments about facing verbal harassment at the hands of Jeffrey Tambor during a group interview, saying he was "incredibly embarrassed" for underestimating her feelings.

The team of the sitcom, which has been revived and is set to return for a fourth season on Netflix, sat down for an interview with the New York Times and the conversation soon moved towards Tambor's alleged past behaviour, prompting Walter to speak about the actor.

Tambor was fired from his critically-acclaimed role in "Transparent" over allegations of sexual misconduct. He has denied the allegations but has admitted to rude behaviour on the sets. His return on "Arrested Development" is his first major gig after the controversy.

During the interview, Walter and Tambor were asked about their working experience and the actress became emotional as she revealed that she was yelled at her co-star.

"He never crossed the line on our show, with any, you know, sexual whatever," Walter told reporter Sopan Deb. "Verbally, yes, he harassed me, but he did apologise."
Bateman repeated his sentiment, saying, "What we do for a living is not normal, and therefore the process is not normal sometimes, and to expect it to be normal is to not understand what happens on set. Again, not to excuse it, Alia, but to be surprised by people having a wobbly route to their goal, their process - it's very rarely predictable."