Christian Slater

People need something to fill their papers, and I'm happy to provide.

Good judgement comes from experience. Sometimes, experience comes from bad judgement.

I've always been fond of Winona Ryder.

[on being accused of copying Jack Nicholson] If I make a move, like raise my eyebrows, some critic says I'm doing Nicholson. What am I supposed to do, cut off my eyebrows?

It still amazes me when I look at some of the films I've been a part of, and some of the people I've gotten to meet and work with. I also look back sometimes and realize that I was lucky to have lived through them and even to have survived them, at times.

[Interview, August 2007] We (Winona Ryder) don't speak on a regular basis, but I love her. I've never gotten over the crush I had on her then. She is still the woman of my dreams.

(1994 quote on fame) There's no question that I love it. There're so many perks to it, it's unreal. 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.

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.

If you can help guide somebody through a challenging moment because you've been there, that ends up becoming a great gift.

I've been taking my time now between projects looking for stuff that has a little bit more substance, that isn't surface. Some of the films that I've done in the past really were surface.

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.

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 tried to play the outright heroic type, like in Broken Arrow but I could tell John Travolta was having more fun than I was because he got to be the fun bad guy.

[About True Romance] This one was just one of those movies that comes along very rarely and it was incredibly special. And I love everybody who was involved in it... the director, Tony Scott - who was a good friend, whom I really loved and appreciated and would've done anything for. The rest of the cast was monumental.

[on working with John Woo on Broken Arrow (1996)] He's a very cerebral man, very sweet, but very quiet, much in the same way Neil Jordan is. I don't know where John's English is today, but at that time, he didn't speak English that well, so our communication was limited. Basically, he told me I was supposed to be playing Steve McQueen and I forget who he said John Travolta was supposed to be, but that was all the direction I really got. (laughs) But what a genius he is, a real master of the medium.

If I make a move, like raise my eyebrows, some critic says I'm doing Nicholson (Jack Nicholson). What am I supposed to do, cut off my eyebrows?

I was a shy, quiet kid. I was happiest playing by myself with my toys, rather than hanging around people.

I've calmed down, certainly, from the days of being 18, but I'm still having a good time.

As you get older you learn some balance and mediation in your life - that's where I am right now. I feel pretty comfortable about things.

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.

This is what Hollywood tends to do. It tends to disregard tradition, history and anything factual, twisting it and turning it and making it all okay regardless of what the English may think of it.

I can promote until I am blue in the face, but ultimately nobody knows what makes a hit.

The '80s was a wild decade, and I had some fantastic times. And I did some really fun work.

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.

How do I feel about being a star now? Well I still try to live life and enjoy what I am doing.

Jail was a result of me not taking time for myself. So I was forced to take some time for myself.

Hopefully, that people could see a progression in my performances because that's how it's always felt to me.

Art does imitate life, it has to come from somewhere. To put boundaries and limitations on it doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

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 don't think of myself as offbeat and weird. As a kid, I saw myself as the type of guy who would run into a burning building to save the baby.

The movies I've made at a certain time of my life were exactly right for the stage of my life, the frame of mind I was in at the time. Each character I've had to play has been me in that time in my life.

Well, obviously, as soon as I'd finished the script I read a lot of books on Winston Churchill, and started to gain weight and really prepare emotionally, mentally and physically for the role.

In truth, making films doesn't feel like hard work because I always have such a good time doing it.

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.

My mom put me in a Pampers commercial on TV.

I have brought a PS2 on set with me before. But games can be really addicting, and that's dangerous. So I tend to keep it fairly limited on a certain level.

After I did Untamed Heart (1993) I wanted to do a film that was outrageous. I really wanted to do, you know, a performance. I don't want to allow my image to rule the choices that I make.

I think games are starting to branch out. It's not just guys sitting at their computer stations. Games are so fun, that everybody gets into them a little bit.

I took a lot of time off after Mobsters (1991) and although I did something I had never done before, which was to direct a play, The Laughter Epidemic, it felt like a vacation.

[on Broken Arrow (1996)] I had such a good time working with John Woo and John Travolta, and it was so professional. I want to work with people who are real professionals.

I'm trying not to put myself into anything I'm not 100 percent confident about.

I was always such an incredible fan of John Woo, I just wanted to do this film with him.

I'm blown away by the graphical detail of today's games. I can't imagine that it's going to get any better, but it's just going to continually progress and soon we'll be living in that world.

I want to do films I can relate to emotionally.

There's something about doing theatre in London - it sinks a little bit deeper into your soul as an actor. It's something about the tradition of theatre, about performing on the West End stage.

The way I see it, if you're going to make an action movie, you've got to make one with John Woo.

The guys from Atari that are making the next Alone in the Dark game came and we had a great meeting. I'd love to do that. I'm a fan of video games. I like them. And to get to be part of one of them would be a fun and exciting thing.

There was a time when I felt I should do everything that was offered to me, you know, ride the wave.

It's almost like these games are the modern day comic books, especially when you play Alone in the Dark. There's a real story that goes along with it and a movie seemed like the right kind of transition to make.

I enjoy the process of TV; I like the pace of it; I like the continual 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.

Eighty-five per cent of the time, people want to talk about True Romance (1993). That's the film I've made that really seems to have stuck with people.

I had tutors, but education was just not a priority.

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.

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.

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.'

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.

Heathers (1988) 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.

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.

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.

Strike and struggle precede success, even in the dictionary.

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.

Updating passwords and changing them all the time is something I'm involved in.

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 cyber attack. It's pretty amazing to see what a small group of people can do if they really know how to control the universe.

It's great, getting the scripts and working with somebody like Sam Esmail, who is such a great leader. He's just so prepared and there's so much attention to detail. And then, you add Rami Malek to the mix, and Carly Chaikin and Portia Doubleday. And in Season 2, we have Joey Badass and Craig Robinson, who are amazing. To get to play a character like this, there's so much freedom and fun with it that it's very exciting.

I always looked at it as though I was as real as Elliot imagined me to be, and that was pretty real. I am there as his partner, as his protector, and as his enemy. I'm there sometimes for the right reasons and sometimes for the wrong reasons. It's a continual struggle between the two of us. It turns into a real psychological journey for Elliot.

I am a gypsy, in a way. It's a condition of my profession.

Having kids certainly gets me to ask the question, 'Who is the adult here, and who is the kid?'

Pump Up the Volume (1990) 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 (2015) 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.

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.

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.

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 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.

When I did Young Guns II (1990) I hung out with Emilio (Emilio Estevez) and Kiefer (Kiefer Sutherland), and I once took a trip with Rob Lowe - we jumped trains.

On The Name of the Rose (1986), I was a nervous wreck working with F. Murray Abraham and Sean Connery. But after that movie - after I did this wild love scene and survived next to these great actors - I felt that if I could do that, I could do anything. For me it was an unbelievable thing I accomplished. It shocked the hell out of me."}