Jason Bateman has addressed what an interviewer has labelled his “lost decade” in the ’90s, when he partied instead of focusing on progressing his acting career.

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The Ozark actor and director explained in a new interview that he used the time to catch up on what he called “inabilities” that stemmed from missing out on normal parts of growing up, thanks to his early stint as a child actor in Little House On The Prairie.

“It was a combination,” he told The Guardian about the factors in his decision to trade acting for hedonism. “Me stopping everything on purpose, to catch up with all these inabilities I had as a kid, because I was always working.

“I wanted to get the wiggles out,” he added, referring to the need he felt to live-out his so-called “lost” childhood and teenage years.

The Guardian noted that in the past the Arrested Development star’s wife, Amanda Anka, had given him an ultimatum about his partying in his 20s.

Bateman added of his partying decade: “Having thought, ‘This is really fun,’ and staying at the party a little bit too long, I’d lost my place in line in the business; it was a case of trying to claw that back towards the end of the ’90s, and not getting a lot of great responses.”

US sitcom Arrested Development, which first aired in 2003, ended the actor’s dry spell after the turn of the century, with roles following in Juno (2007) and elsewhere.

In Ozark news, part one of the fourth and final season has now launched on Netflix, with part two slated for release later this year.