Christian Slater: Clean Slater

Q: A friend of mine says that when she makes a movie, everybody becomes one big, dysfunctional family by the end of the shoot.

A: With each experience, it's different. True Romance felt like a dysfunctional family. I think it has a lot to do with the script and the character I'm playing. Maybe I tend to sometimes get into it maybe a little bit too much. I have blinders on to the outside world while I'm working. And I do everything I possibly can for the movie. If it's a movie that's a bit darker and heavier, then I tend to get darker and heavier. I lose sight of anything else around me. I'm a bit more selfish in my personal life.

Q: I'm wondering about some of the roles you've passed on or that passed on you.

A: I try not to even think about it. Edward Scissorhands wasn't a movie that I could have gotten, or was even considered for, but you see that type of movie and it's like, "Wow, that would've been an interesting role to do." Or young Indiana Jones would have been a kick in the pants, the greatest. I remember I went in for Say Anything. . . , but I had a different interpretation than the director. I wasn't in a simple frame of mind then. Anyway, John Cusack nailed it perfectly.

Q: Having been in the business since you were a kid doing shows on Broadway, I wonder whether you've ever been sexually harassed, whether somebody's made an...

A: Indecent proposal?

Q: To mention a movie that you and Tom Cruise reportedly both turned down.

A: [Laughing] So you're asking something like having to sleep my way to the top?

Q: Precisely.

A: First, about Indecent Proposal, the movie, there's a time where I read the script and I met Adrian Lyne and thought he was a really cool guy but I wasn't that hot on the idea. I thought [the idea] was a little strange and Honeymoon in Vegas covered it pretty well. Anyway, real-life sleazy experiences ... I've never really had to sell myself short.

Q: I heard you were up for Bram Stoker's Dracula and The Hudsucker Proxy.

A: [Laughing] "Why didn't you do this movie, why didn't you do that movie?" I should have, man. I'm sorry. My God! The [Coen brothers] one is hard for me to comment on. I didn't do as much research as I probably should have on that particular film. I sort of screwed that one up. That was probably an error on my part. C'est la vie. I definitely thought Dracula was an interesting idea, but if I wasn't going to be considered for the role of Dracula, I wasn't interested in playing any other role. If you're not going to play Dracula in Dracula, why bother? I'd already been Robin Hood's brother.

Q: Were you surprised that Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves was such a hit, considering the chaos during the shooting?

A: A little surprised, because there were moments where I felt like the left hand didn't know what the right was doing. I had a really good time and liked all the people I worked with, but I also saw what a nightmare it was for some people.

Q: One hears your part got chopped because you looked young and hot and stole some of your scenes. If the Kevins--Reynolds and Costner--phoned you to do another movie, would you?

A: Absolutely. Kevin Reynolds is a great guy--truly, genuinely nice guy. I don't sense any hidden agenda from Kevin Costner. I think during Robin Hood, he was probably going through the same sort of lessons that I was going through. He had just finished Dances With Wolves, was in the middle of editing that, signed up to do this movie, and was legitimately exhausted. So, his patience was a little less than it might've been.

Q: But didn't he find the patience and time to help reedit Robin Hood and take some of you out of it?

A: That movie was shot in tiny little snippets. We'd start one scene on Monday, shoot something else in-between, and finish that scene on Friday. There are little snippets of things that it would have been cool to have in the movie because they were a little more heroic, a little more interesting and daring. And made Will Scarlet a little stronger. It's tough to really say.

Q: He said, staring off pointedly.

A: [Laughing] No, no, I genuinely don't know. If they want to take something out of the movie, I always think that it is in the best interest of the film. I never really look at anything as though they're doing it to be spiteful towards me or anything like that.

Q: Whatever happened on that movie, its box office sure helped you with studios and investors.

A: Right, because it's not just Hollywood anymore. Studios and movie companies want somebody that's bankable worldwide, that they know they can make money on. Some of the best actors, people that I love and that I've enjoyed working with and would love to work with again, the studio might have a problem with because they don't do well in Japan. That kills me.

Q: Let's talk career agenda. What's yours?

A: To be able to look back and be proud of movies I've done. 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. Taking the time off I did, I found out a lot of different things. I enjoyed my own company. I didn't beat myself up or go crazy that I wasn't working. I was able to spend more time with my family, my brother. It felt good to slow things down. Fortunately, I had the experience behind me to know what it was like to just appreciate a whole 'nother way of doing things, meeting people, taking time and getting to know people, finding out a little bit about what I'm about. I found out I was trying to remove myself from the vulnerable qualities. Because I've always been very shy in my own life, I've looked for characters that were not like that at all but were more boisterous, outrageous, ballsy.

Q: Is the effort you put into the films you do always appreciated?

A: With one particular film, I came in with 40 new pages and said, "You've got to insert these into the script or it's not going to work." A little presumptuous on my part, huh? Naturally, they weren't as thrilled with the idea as I was. I probably could've handled that a little bit smoother, maybe just hand in a page at a time.

Q: Which movie was that?

A: [Laughing] Oh, I would never say, but it's probably easy to assume. It just won't come out of my mouth.

Q: Do you get nervous before a movie?

A: There's a little bit of fear about getting to know people. I just try and relax, go with it and be as easygoing as possible. I just did The People's Choice Awards thing and that's where I'm the most nervous. I know I did theater and all that, but there, you could never really see the audience. At one of those awards things, you're up there and can see everybody in the audience that you look up to and they are all watching you. Those types of events really scare the hell out of me.

Q: It would seem to me it might have been scarier to do Untamed Heart with a couple of screen-grabbers like Rosie Perez and Marisa Tomei.

A: If I hadn't really gotten into the character, I probably would've tried to be a scene-stealer, tried to out-act them. That would've completely ruined the whole feeling of the movie. Somehow, I was just able to relax. Tony Bill sort of let us find our own way, so instead of worrying about being upstaged or anything, I tried to just be there without all those other unnecessary feelings of being "less than" that all stem from insecurity and fear. It turned out to be one of the best, simplest experiences I ever had: everybody just trying to make a decent, nice little movie.

Q: That so few people saw.

A: I really didn't expect them to. But it's the type of film I really want to do. I'm actually happy with how it did the opening week. One of the great things was being able to set up a screening for like 20 or 30 friends and family to sit down and enjoy the movie. People were crying. That made me feel great! Over time, I think this movie will have a stronger appeal than it does today.

Q: You did a cameo for director Marc Rocco in Where the Day Takes You and I hear you're going to do his next movie.

A: I don't know that it's definitely a guaranteed thing, so it's difficult to talk about, but it's a movie called Murder in the First that I want to do more than anything. It's almost a To Kill a Mockingbird or Judgment at Nuremberg type movie that takes place in 1938 about a young lawyer and a convict. Other than that, I have an office at my house and an assistant who works for me, reading all the time. He's trying to get me to read more, get more active in that. I'm definitely trying to get more active in my career and taking a more active role in the decisions.

Q: Finish the sentence, "If I did a Woody Allen movie, I'd like to play. . ."

A: The marriage counselor.

Q: "If I did a Gus Van Sant movie, I'd like to play. . ."

A: A sick, demented school teacher.

Q: "If I did a Peter Weir movie, I'd like to play. . ."

A: An upright, pure school teacher.

Q: Ten years from now, if you were to come across the "Christian Slater" entry in an encyclopedia of film stars, what would you hope it would say?

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

Q: What's the biggest career bummer you could perpetrate on yourself at this point?

A: To once again put myself in a situation where I might be financially overextended so I have to work. That would really bum me out because I don't want to sell myself short and just do a film for the sake of doing a film. I'm in this business because it's fun and it's enjoyable. I just want to do things that I can be proud of, you know?

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Stephen Rebello interviewed Sharon Stone for Movieline's June cover story.

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