Sometimes people come up to me and say, 'You were my teen crush.' I'm honored and I'm touched, but I also ask, 'What happened? Why'd you take the poster down?' I get a little heartbroken in that situation.
— Christian Slater
I operate better with education and awareness, like I think all of us do. I don't like to be walking around in a vacuum, lost in my own thoughts. I'm much better with information.
I had such a lack of respect for women that I just treated them as a hobby, trying to live up to the supposed image of Jack Nicholson and all those guys who were womanizers.
It's always a leap of faith when you get involved with somebody.
The first job I had was a Pampers commercial. And I used to go with my father whenever he would do a performance. I remember clinging to his legs, saying, 'Please. Take me with you.'
I'm certainly grateful that there were projects that I did that people responded to. It would be a nightmare if it were the other way around. But it's sometimes a little disheartening.
Having kids certainly gets me to ask the question, 'Who is the adult here, and who is the kid?'
When I did 'Young Guns II,' I hung out with Emilio and Kiefer, and I once took a trip with Rob Lowe - we jumped trains.
The Internet definitely could be a weapon of mass destruction - it's not going to come in a bomb, it's going to come as a cyberattack. It's pretty amazing to see what a small group of people can do if they really know how to control the universe.
An actor equals, sometimes, an entitled baby. People take care of things for me, and they pay greater attention to things than I was ever capable of doing. But in the last few years, I have learned a great deal more about taking care of things. I pay my own bills now.
'Heathers' was probably the first time when I started to notice that people were opening doors for me and giving me tables at restaurants, regardless of what I was wearing. A whole world opened up to me that was shocking and weird and different, and I enjoyed it, and, you know, I took great advantage of it at times.
I have that glass-half-empty syndrome, and it takes a great deal of effort to climb out of the hole of darkness that I choose to live in mentally.
I had tutors, but education was just not a priority.
I enjoy the process of TV; I like the pace of it; I like the continual work.
The '80s was a wild decade, and I had some fantastic times. And I did some really fun work.
My dad was a theater actor, so I would follow him backstage. And my mom was a casting director. The moment I heard the applause and realized it would get me out of school, I was hooked.
I thought I'd get over being insecure if I became famous, but it hasn't happened. It just gets worse, really. You get more and more on edge, more nervous. These are all the things I'm dealing with. You think if you get famous, fear will go away and problems will go away. But they don't.
If I'm backed into a corner, the first thing that comes to mind is the robot from Forbidden Planet. But that could be me trying to be kitschy, cool, and cultural, because the real answer is R2D2.
It's great, getting the scripts and working with somebody like Sam Esmail, who is such a great leader.
I lost myself, and a lot of characters I played, I have latched onto some of their identities just because I was so lacking in anything of my own.
I'm not a great card player. Keeping my cards close has always been a challenge for me.
My father was an actor, and my mother was his agent, so I had it on both sides: the crazy actor and his representation.
I try to stay away from the craft services table on set! That's probably why I am able to still get work in this business: I stay away from junk food.
Some of the characters that I played as a kid were rebellious teenagers, and people would see those performances and project a particular image onto me. And 90 percent of the time, I would do everything I could to live up to that sort of image and be that individual.
The Internet opens up so many doors. It's a phenomenal tool for education but also a way for people to be scary and dangerous. We're living in a world where we can be hacked and exposed.
I do have a Twitter account, and there's a woman at my agency who got that all set up for me. I don't know how many followers I have. It's not one of those things I check on a regular basis.
Strike and struggle precede success, even in the dictionary.
My mother became a casting director, and she cast me in a soap opera called 'One Life to Live.' I was, like, 8 years old, playing a kid who had hurt himself on a skateboard. I had, like, three lines. I did the lines, and everybody in the studio applauded - I was immediately hooked after that. I was like, 'This is the life for me.'
Drama can be an addiction. It's so, so sneaky. Jealousy - all of those things can really send you in a lot of different crazy directions.
My family was amazing; they exposed me to the world of show business, and, boy, it was the '70s and I got to spend a lot of time backstage at theaters and see the inner workings of how this entertainment industry is really put together.
Eighty-five per cent of the time, people want to talk about 'True Romance.' That's the film I've made that really seems to have stuck with people.
Tony Scott was one of the best directors I've ever worked with, and I was devastated when I heard about his death. He was a great guy with great energy. But this is a difficult business, and people's lives are sometimes difficult.
I'm not a religious person by any means. But I certainly believe in some kind of a higher power and something looking out for me. I've definitely had angels that have either guided me or helped me through moments in my life, without a doubt.
I've always been fond of Winona Ryder.
I'm an actor; I have an ego that is sometimes disproportionate to the reality of the situation.
Sometimes you can tell a wise person not only by what he says but also by what he doesn't say. Remember, it is much better to say little than to say too much and regret it later.
When you sign onto something, you want the character to be redeemable and likeable, hopefully, and understandable.
Success can be a very difficult thing to deal with.
I can be going through nothing, but within me, in my head, oh my God! It can be a circus.
Actors sometimes immerse themselves into it so deeply that the line between who they are and their character can become blurred. For me, I think it's just about getting clearer on my whole life and who I am in order to make it possible for me to play whatever character is presented to me at a particular time.
I am a gypsy, in a way. It's a condition of my profession.
'Pump Up the Volume' was a film and character that I really responded to. That was a movie about a guy trying to take down the establishment using a ham radio. I feel 'Mr. Robot' has a similar value. This show is about taking down a global empire. I was an anarchist then. I'm getting to be an anarchist again.
Updating passwords and changing them all the time is something I'm involved in.
It's very, very difficult because we're living in a world where they invent things in order to hide things from parents. There are these secret creator app guys who make things to intentionally do that, to keep your parents in the dark, and you've really got to work extra-hard to stay on top of it.
Theater was definitely part of my roots. My father would take me to plays, and then my mother was always on the lookout for other talent and taking me to see plays. I saw Frank Langella in 'Dracula'... Great, great performances. I was a theater rat, hanging out backstage.
When I'm in the kitchen, I don't want anybody else in the kitchen. I have a system - and the system, it's another form of insanity that has grabbed me.
If you can help guide somebody through a challenging moment because you've been there, that ends up becoming a great gift.
As I've gotten to know myself over the years, I realised I'm kind of a sweet, sensitive guy, a shy guy, and communication is not something I'm so good at.
I did regret not graduating high school, but I made a point of going back and getting my GED later. It was important for my kids.
Jail was a result of me not taking time for myself. So I was forced to take some time for myself.
