From the Archives: Christian Slater

Christian Slater has certainly done some very bad things but don't let his bad boy reputation overshadow his standing as one of the best actors under 30 in the business. Sitting down to promote his latest project, Peter Berg's gruesomely rollicking Very Bad Things, Slater was cool, calm and, yes, charismatic.

At 29, he is a 20-year veteran of the business and one of his generation's icons due to performances in Heathers, Pump Up the Volume and True Romance. But beneath the Jack Nicholson facade is a man in renewal. He's currently on the New York stage receiving rave reviews for Side Man, and advance reviews on Very Bad Things have trumpeted his crazed performance as Robert Boyd, the ringleader of a bachelor party gone awry. It is a performance to savor.

What was it about [Robert Boyd] that jumped out at you?

He's crazy, a lunatic. As I read it, I could hear myself saying the lines. It seemed to be written, in a way, for me. It just felt really natural, really right. When I spoke to [writer-director Peter Berg], he told me he was a fan of the movies I'd done -- Heathers and Pump Up the Volume -- and this was along those lines. It was that kind of movie where the writing was really good and the characters were really colorful and I would really get to sink my teeth into a character and express myself.

Some actors say that before they're able to play a character, either they have to fall in love with the character or not judge the character or find something within themselves to relate to the character. Does any of that apply to you?

When I read the script, I was actually in a real state of mind, I was probably in a pretty dark place, to be honest with you. I was really. . .my life had just been a mess, it had been a whirlwind and I thought, "I can play this character now because I'm insane." And I guess, you know. . . Jesus, 30 days before we started shooting, my public insanity was well-displayed and I had a real change of heart, I had a real change of vibe, and got really scared because I didn't think I was going to be able to do this [role]. My head was telling me, "I don't think I'm going to be able to do this movie in the place that I'm at today." I'd gotten to a point where I looked at the behavior of these characters and I went, "Oh, my God, this is horrible, this is disgusting, this is atrocious." So my head was really telling me, "I can't do this, I can't do this." It was me telling myself I wouldn't be able to do it unless I was really, really this character. What ended up happening is I got the opportunity to deal with a lot of those demons and walk through a lot of fear. Rather than having to be the lunatic while making this movie, I got to really draw a clear line between fact and fiction. When I was playing the character, I did end up loving the character and it did give me an opportunity to exorcise a lot of these demons. But I was able to really separate myself from that. The moment the camera stopped rolling I didn't have to be Robert Boyd.

And you'd never had that before?

(sighs and pauses) Mmm, well, I don't think I'd really been given the opportunity before to really. . .or given myself the opportunity before to really use it as an opportunity to establish a clear line between the characters that I play and who it is that I really am.

You're now performing onstage in Side Man. Do you agree that the stage is a more legitimate medium for acting than film?

No, I think the stage is a much more --- certainly with this play, it's me up there in a lot of respects. I mean, I keep telling myself, "I'm Clifford, I'm Clifford, I'm Clifford." It's a more personal, intimate experience. With a movie, you do the work and you leave it in the hands of somebody that, God-willing, you can trust, that's going to put it together and hopefully choose the good takes. You really do have to turn it over. With theater, once you're up there on the stage, there's nothing anybody can do. (laughs) It's your show. The director can't run up and freak out. Not that I've done that, but I think there's a lot more freedom up on the stage.

I read somewhere that you thought the character you played in Bed of Roses was closer to who you are. But it's the farthest from the Slater persona.

(smiles) Right. Well, I think I'd been looking for an identity of my own for a long time. I've been in show business for 20 years and I think one of the things I really enjoyed about this business is I've been able to latch on to certain identities and put them on for a little while. I've never really had to establish one of my own. I've been sort of this free-floating spirit just latching on to the different characters that I've played and doing my best to identify with them or identify with the other actors that I'm working with, not really having a belief system of my own and who and what it is that I'm really about, what it is that I really stand for. So I have tried to latch on to certain characters that I've played and create that kind of image. The truth is, I don't know, the truth is I'm not really. . .I'm probably a combination of a lot of the characters that I've played. But today I'm much more about. . .uh. . .love and service. (smiles) That's it. If I'm going to stand for something, that's what I'll stand for.

Do you think you could have said, "I'm just enjoying the month of November" a year ago?

Actually, my last November was great. It was the beginning of the process of learning to enjoy the day. I went to -- it was something I'd never really done -- Cape Cod and saw my grandmother and spent time with my uncles. It was wonderful to make that connection with family, which is something that I hadn't really given myself a huge opportunity to do before.