Justine Bateman arrives in the foyer of the West Hollywood hotel travelling light. She’s carrying a blackberry, chewing gum and pulling off the look of a European film star enjoying a day off. At a nearby table Katy Perry is enjoying the afternoon after the VMA’s. Jane Lynch is close by. Bateman carries a similar magnetism. At her popular peak the actress starred in a mid-80’s sitcom that drew 26million viewers per episode. She hosted SNL and, in a time that what we now look back on and call the monoculture, Bateman was the teen supreme as Family Ties’ Mallory Keaton. But there was always more to Bateman than a fine sense of comedic timing. She wrote poetry and obsessed over art films. Her cover-shoot for the snark haven, Spy magazine, and Family Ties a send up in MAD meant more to her than television industry nominations. Fast forward to 2011 and Bateman is a woman enjoying the new media frontier. As an actress, in recent times, Bateman’s enjoyed spots on everything from Desperate Housewives to Californication and Arrested Development. Now she’s treating the web as her creative sphere. An early adopter, Bateman has embraced social media and developed television content produced exclusively for the internet. Almost as soon as Bateman takes a seat, you’re drawn in by that voice. It’s familiar, considered and used to great effect, as the actress waxes lyrical on a variety of subjects that cover everything from acting in the 21st century to the notion of time itself. Google what she’s up to and everything from having a script accepted by Disney to co-curating Image Oscillite turn up. ”I’m one of the editors,” she explains of the latter while stashing the gum. “The other contributing editors have good eyes too. Curation is really what needs to happen online in a big way. As much as the gatekeepers are gone, there still is a need for tastemakers, otherwise [the internet] is a gigantic thrift store. If you’re willing to go through the bins to find the Armani jacket, then it can be worth your while.” Bateman, whose company Section 5 sees her embrace a host of internet related ideas, has produced episodic entertainment using YouTube, among others, for distribution. Easy To Assemble is worth checking out, as is the chat show with Wake Up And Get Real, Kelly Cutrone. Bateman understands the pros and cons of trying to connect in new media. ”It is so fractured,” she says of web viewing habits. “But, if you understand the product you have, you have to market things differently to what you would with traditional media. The only audience is a niche audience, and you have to understand which combination of those niches is your audience for that project. Then you have to do your research and see where they live online and where they consume their video online and delivery it to them in those places.” ”Something very clever for Easy To Assemble was the IKEA fan sites that have a lot of visitors: so they had an arrangement with them. You go to where people are already gathering and you put your project in the middle. If you’re looking for women between 30 and 60, it’s a big Facebook play or social media game. You’ll go to other sites if you’re after boys aged 18 to 22. You have to make it specific, it’s not one-size fits all like in traditional media.” Although a relatively early adopter, Bateman uses her social media wisely. It’s another way to connect with an audience, but it’s obvious her infatuation with Facebook is over. ”I don’t really use it anymore,” she deadpans. “When I first started on Facebook, it was to see things that other people had posted. I was like, ’Oh God, do you have to?’ I had an early feeling, which turned out to be true, that, once you get in, you cannot fucking get out. The reason there are 500 million people is because you can’t delete an account. Tumblr is where I live. Most of my sites are tumblr sites: you can adjust the html, you can customise pages and then anytime you post things people that follow you can see it right away. [It’s] kind of like Twitter. The kind of people on Tumblr and the collection of people I follow are wicked, smart, artistic, angry, sarcastic, talented…there’s journalists, a lot of magazines are on there now, incredible photography. Some of it’s silly stuff and some of it is very insightful about what’s going on.” Directors might call it the fourth wall, but whatever it is Bateman is prepared to step beyond it. There’s a public life, a business life and a private life. All seem to co-exist on the web. Fame, for what’s it’s worth, is hardly something the actress seems attached too. She’s enjoyed her share of it and describes it quite profoundly as a like standing under a cloud that you don’t want to get too attached to. It’ll move on over you: whether you like it or not. Still, she has an army of admirers. Some have appreciated Bateman’s work for years; others are still stuck on Mallory Keaton. The actress has even considered a project where the audience are allowed closure with their television neighbour. ”It’s nice to be able to connect with someone who liked your work,” she says with a hint of consideration, “and to express your appreciation for their appreciation. But I’ve gotten to a point where I’ve always maintained private accounts. I’ve got a private Facebook account and a ’Justine Bateman’ account. I used to check on Twitter for ’justinebateman’ and people would just say nasty shit. So, I said I’m never going to do that again. If they really want to say something to me, they can send me an email, but otherwise, fuck it, I’m done. It’s [often] nasty and crude and they want me to re-blog them. They usually have twelve followers – so I won’t buy into that. I’ve met some outstanding people through Tumblr though.” Bateman loves ideas, big concepts and broad thinking. She’s enamoured with the web because it allows her to realise her ideas and reach people in a lighting speed manner. She’s always drawn to the random nature of what can arrive in your inbox or cloud your horizon as you’re mindlessly surfing. ”I love the internet, it’s absolutely changed my life. Anybody’s work that I’ve seen and think is amazing…Well there was a physicist and I saw this quote of his three years ago. A collection of big thinkers were asked what they know but cannot prove.” A day or two later an email arrives from Bateman containing Carlo Rovelli’s quote. I am convinced, but cannot prove that time does not exist.
I am convinced that time and space are…convenient macroscopic approximations, flimsy but illusory and insufficient screens that our minds use to organize our reality.
I am convinced that time is an artifact of the approximation in which we disregard the large majority of the degrees of freedom of reality.”
“So I was able to find his email address,” Bateman continues, “and I was able to email him and say it really hit me and he answered back. It would have been a herculean effort to speak with this guy [in the past]. I love that part of the internet. And, regarding people who are shitty online, well it just reveals what people have always been like.” As the conversation ebbs and flows around everything from the future of smart phones to old Hollywood, the net and its power keeps coming back into play. With all of this information at our fingertips, are we getting smarter? How does having information available as a mosaic shape our thinking versus the linear learning patterns we were once accustomed to? ”That’s an interesting concept. How much are we going to commit to memory going forward? Does it come down to how good are your search skills, or do you know what key words to put in to find your answer?” One thing that impresses Bateman is our newfound ability to translate ideas into something tangible quickly. There’s no more relying on big machinery to reach an audience. An example is Wake Up And Get Real. ”I really love it. It was during the withers strike in 07/08, that’s when we all realised the bottom of the distribution pyramid had dropped out. The way everything had been done for decades, distribution, financing…everything…it was a new day. It was revelatory. It was a huge pivot moment, not just because there was a labour action, it coincided with a moment of awareness for filmmakers. Since the beginning of film as a business, it had been done in a particular way with absolute control of distribution. There was a template for contracts and particular structures for timing on the production. With the internet it was like, my God we can get alternate distribution worldwide and make things differently. The type of productions I’ve been doing are multi-platform. If you see it on an iPad you can stick your hands in a story. I’m not talking about ‘choose your own adventure’ story. It’s a touch screen, it’s revolutionary…it’s huge, but I’ve seen little or no use of it by producers and directors.” ”I think people should be getting in there. This is a pioneering moment. Few generations get to have that. It’s an absolute paradigm shift, not just in the way things are distributed and funded, it’s the very structure of the entertainment itself.” Spend twenty minutes in Bateman’s company and it’s obvious that this is a woman that doesn’t fit neatly in any kind of box. If she’s not working on her web ideas, she’s writing a script or working as an advocate for net neutrality. There’s a book of poetry and art [Violence & Feathers] from her youth that’s about to be published. You’ll find the project on Kickstarter. Keep googling and you’ll find an entire site devoted to Mallory Keaton’s fashion. Fashion forward herself; Bateman has already enjoyed success as a designer, though everything comes back to acting. The internet seems to bring the actress the same fulfilment as a network hit. ”I totally enjoy acting, but you’re the painter of one room in a house,” she admits. “You didn’t put the plans together, you didn’t hire the contractor and sub-contractor, you’re not the real estate agent that helps sell it. To be able to write, direct and produce I just love it. To be just an actor in the projects I’m putting together doesn’t make any sense at all. I’m designing not only the content of the project, but the structure of the project and the distribution of it, the kinds of deals I want to make and trying to monetize it. Is it satisfying? Well, you get your cheque faster if you’re doing your episode of an established show [laughs]. ”But, with Easy To Assemble we got over ten million hits. Breaking Bad and Mad Men are outstanding shows, but if they get a two share, that’s two million people – but you’re getting it in one shot which is what advertisers want.” Bateman considers the expanse of it all and taps the nail on the head. “I think the internet should win a nobel prize.”
