Jason Bateman: 'I begged to do The Change-Up'

Jason Bateman has revealed that he begged for his role in The Change-Up.

The Arrested Development star was so "excited" by the concept of the body-swap comedy, which also stars his close friend Ryan Reynolds, that he reached out to studio bosses immediately after finishing its screenplay.

"I was very excited to read the script based on the fact I was going to be playing two parts," he told Virgin Media. "It's the funniest script I've ever read so when I finished it I immediately emailed the studio and said, 'Please, please let me do this movie'."

Although he was pleased to join The Change-Up, Bateman did regret his decision to strip completely naked for a "dramatic" scene with co-star Leslie Mann.

"I had a robe on that was open, but it didn't really get done what I was supposed to be doing in that scene, which was to be some kind of shocking comedic relief at the end of a very sad, dramatic scene that Leslie does," he explained.

"She did such a great job in that scene I thought I needed to come in with a bit more of a shocking punch at the end. So I asked to reshoot that scene without the robe and that wasn't very smart."

> Jason Bateman: 'The Change-Up was a lot of work'

Watch Jason Bateman discuss The Change-Up with Digital Spy below: