Jason Bateman’s long-running space theory was right, physicist Brian Cox says

On the latest episode of SmartLess (recorded August 3, 2026 ), physicist Brian Cox was presented with Jason Bateman’s long-running shower-thought: put a giant mirror where the Sun is, and you could look back at Earth a few minutes in the past. Cox didn’t just humor him — he said the math checks out.

“You're right. If you put a mirror where the sun is, i guess, you'd see a reflection of the Earth as it was 16 minutes ago.”

The affirmation sent the hosts into a gleeful spiral. Bateman was mostly relieved to have a real scientist sign off on the idea, while co-hosts Sean Hayes and Will Arnett cracked that Bateman should join Cox on tour now that they’re apparently colleagues in astrophysics.

Bateman also flagged a hitch in the thought experiment: he noted it takes “almost seven minutes” for light to travel between Earth and the Sun each way, so you’d never quite catch the present. Cox agreed, likening it to how we’re always seeing our computer screens slightly in the past — just by nanoseconds — because of how long signals take to travel.

Bateman behind the camera

Off the mic, Bateman has wrapped his next directing gig, The Cackling of the Dodos for Netflix , which finished a six-week shoot in New Jersey and is now in post.

• Production timeline — Filming ran from June 1 to July 12, 2026.
• Where they shot — Towns across Union and Bergen counties stood in for the film ’s setting.
• What it’s about — Per Netflix, the story follows George, a small-town farmer whose ordinary day implodes when he finds a body in a grain bin. Instead of calling it in, his boss Denny ropes him into an increasingly chaotic cover-up.

With SmartLess still rolling and The Cackling of the Dodos moving through post, Bateman’s summer now includes an unlikely new credential — a space- time theory stamped “sounds right” by Brian Cox.