'Arrested Development' Star Jessica Walter Confirms 'Through Tears' That Jeffrey Tambor 'Verbally' Harassed Her on Set

During the heated and emotional conversation -- some of which you can hear here -- Walter started tearing up, as she and her co-stars talked about Tambor's behavior.

When the reporter brought up the incident, Jason Bateman said that lashing out was something they've "all done" at some point. "You've never yelled at me like that," Walter responded.

"Not to belittle it or excuse it or anything, but in the entertainment industry it is incredibly common to have people who are, in quotes, 'difficult,'" Bateman continued, after Tambor said he believes he has "reckoned" with what happened. "And when you're in a privileged position to hire people, or have an influence in who does get hired, you make phone calls. And you say, 'Hey, so I've heard X about person Y, tell me about that.' And what you learn is context. And you learn about character and you learn about work habits, work ethics, and you start to understand. Because it's a very amorphous process, this sort of bullshit that we do, you know, making up fake life. It's a weird thing, and it is a breeding ground for atypical behavior and certain people have certain processes."

Alia Shawkat cut him off there, saying, "But that doesn't mean it's acceptable. And the point is that things are changing, and people need to respect each other differently."

Walter then -- "though tears," the writer notes -- chimed back in. "Let me just say one thing that I just realized in this conversation. I have to let go of being angry at him. He never crossed the line on our show, with any, you know, sexual whatever. Verbally, yes, he harassed me, but he did apologize," she said. "I have to let it go. And I have to give you a chance to, you know, for us to be friends again."

Addressing Bateman's comments she added, "Jason says this happens all the time. In like almost 60 years of working, I've never had anybody yell at me like that on a set. And it's hard to deal with, but I'm over it now. I just let it go right here, for The New York Times."

Tony Hale tried to say they've "all had moments" as well, to which Walter responded, "But not like that, not like that. That was bad." Bateman also tried to explain his earlier point again, adding, "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.

David Cross also said, "this kind of behavior that's being described, it didn't just come out of the blue. It wasn't zero to 60. There is a cumulative effect sometimes."

In the end, Walter said the type of behavior Tambor exhibited is not typical, but she also didn't have any reservations about working with him again. "No. I've just given it up. And you know, there's something really, really freeing about that now. I realize that," she said. "I don't want to walk around with anger. I respect him as an actor. We've known each other for years and years and years. No, no, no, no. Of course, I would work with him again in a heartbeat."

"Arrested Development" returns for its fifth season May 29th on Netflix.