<\/p>\nNBC\/NBCU Photo Bank<\/p>\n
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As Fox notes, his Alex “unleashed” all manner of setups, one-liners, and zingers “on her mercilessly.”\n<\/p>\n
In the show’s first season, Mallory usually took the tack of rolling her eyes, scoffing, or otherwise letting Alex’s barrage of provocations bounce off her. “She always had to take it,” Bateman recalls to Fox in the book. “It started to bother me personally, to have to keep taking it. And I thought, well, what if Mallory didn’t think it was an insult? What if she responded to Alex’s digs by saying, ‘Thank you.’ And that would confuse him: ‘No, I meant that to be an insult. You can’t take it as a compliment!'”\n<\/p>\n
As soon as Bateman switched up her approach, the audience responded. “Justine employed this technique on her own, putting a spin on the dialogue that the writers might not have intended,” Fox explains. “But hey, it got laughs, and soon her character evolved in that direction.”\n<\/p>\n
Despite their series-long acrimony, punctuated by brief but meaningful moments of reconciliation and understanding, both Fox and Bateman said the enmity was all for show. “Alex and Mallory’s sibling tension did not mirror real life,” Fox writes. “Our characters were always at odds, but as actors and people, Justine and I had a certain sympatico. We became the best of friends.”\n<\/p>\n
Bateman adds that “Working together was so easy\u2026 It was like two well-\u00adfitting pieces.”\n<\/p>\n
Family Ties<\/em> ran for seven seasons, airing its series finale in 1989. By that time Fox had already transformed into a superstar thanks to the mega-successes of films like Back to the Future<\/em> and Teen Wolf<\/em>.<\/p>\n