I think I’ll probably always have love for Christian Slater. When I was just a girl, Christian was the hottest thing ever. And he got through early stardom and success to become a screwed up young man with addictions. He battled those addictions successfully, and now he’s clean and sober and ready to do more work. I respect his journey – it’s like Robert Downey Junior Lite. And while I think Christian is talented, he’s never going to really have an RDJ-like career resurgence. But Christian might have some solid success, and he’s got a new television show on Fox that he’s promoting now. He sat down with Details for a nice little Q&A, and he talks sobriety, River Phoenix and Pump Up the Volume! The full Details piece is here, and here are some highlights:

DETAILS: After a couple of failed shows, you’re returning to television in the FOX comedy Breaking In. Is the third time the charm?
Christian Slater: That’s what we hope. [Laughs] I like to work. I’m like the Michael Caine of this side of the pond. I like feeling useful and productive. Hopefully it’s a passable script. Jobs are few and far between these days, so I’m just grateful for the opportunities. I have children and responsibilities now.

DETAILS: Quitting drinking and drugs must have really changed your priorities.
Christian Slater: The last five years of my life have been great. Really different. I just celebrated five years of sobriety. I’ve been trying to take time for myself and to be with my kids. I went to Africa and ended up building schools there. I went on a USO tour to Bahrain and Djibouti. I went to Walter Reed hospital. These aren’t things I ever considered doing.

DETAILS: No, these are not things people associate with Christian Slater.
Christian Slater: Look, I could spend a lot of time kicking the shit out of myself for the choices I made. I was dealing with alcoholism and addiction, and there was a lot to take on without much life experience. Addiction is not pretty, and you don’t fully understand it unless you’re dealing with it head-on. That’s why when I see other kids struggling, I will sometimes reach out to them—a call or an e-mail.

DETAILS: Really? Did you reach out to Lindsay Lohan?
Christian Slater: Sure, of course. I appreciated the people who reached out to me. It’s a brutal position to be in. You feel alone and confused over where your life went and how you got yourself in this situation.

DETAILS: In 1997, you were convicted of assaulting your girlfriend and a cop. What was jail like?
Christian Slater: Honestly, not so bad. Jail was a result of me not taking time for myself. So I was forced to take some time for myself. [Laughs ] It was necessary for me. When you’re going down that path, you either kill yourself or you’re forced to take time out.

DETAILS: In the nineties, you and River Phoenix were friends and seemed to be on the same path. Do you ever wonder why he didn’t make it and you did?
Christian Slater : All the time. I’ve had a couple of close calls, actually. The Crow, the Brandon Lee movie, was on my radar. A lot of people I’ve loved have died. A lot have been misunderstood, misdiagnosed, mistreated. Chris Farley. River Phoenix. Addiction is a killer. And it takes so much to recognize the problem.

DETAILS: What was your rock bottom?
Christian Slater: It wasn’t a specific thing. Probably one of those crazy nights when you wake up on the floor, your mother is standing over you, and she has to take you to the hospital. It’s humiliating. Or when you have to talk to your children through thick glass. I did One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest on stage twice, and the first time I was a lunatic. I hit that wall, and in the back of my mind I knew I was doomed. Thankfully, I was able to do the play again once I got sober.

DETAILS: Was there a spiritual aspect to your recovery?
Christian Slater: 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.

DETAILS: Was it tough to cut ties with the people who fueled your lifestyle?
Christian Slater: No. All you’re doing is escaping together.

DETAILS: You come from a showbiz family and started acting when you were 7, when your mom suggested you for a role on the soap opera One Life to Live. Do you regret starting so early?
Christian Slater: No. 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 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. Then I got involved with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and their program to encourage graduation. Now I’m an ambassador for education. [Laughs]

DETAILS: You’ve done a bunch of great movies and a bunch of bad ones. Can you tell if they’re good or bad when you’re doing them?
Christian Slater: Did I have any idea that Heathers would be a good movie? No. Pump Up the Volume? Yeah, I had an idea. I like that one.

DETAILS: There was a Heathers musical staged last year in New York. Did they approach you?
Christian Slater: The producer wanted me to come to the read-through, but I missed it. I heard it was really, really good. They’re thinking of doing something on Broadway. I don’t think I’d be in it. It’d be some kid playing me.

DETAILS: Are you in contact with Winona Ryder at all? Did you see her in Black Swan?
Christian Slater: No, not yet. I’ve always loved her, and I always wanted to work with her again. It’s great she’s doing well. Agents were sometimes like, “Oh, she’s crazy” or whatever, but I’m like, “What?” I worked with her. She’s great.

DETAILS: Back in the day, you had a reputation for dating some of the hottest women in town—Samantha Mathis, Christy Turlington, Winona.
Christian Slater: I don’t know what to say about that. Shit, I don’t know what to say about that. It’s a crazy town, and actors are nuts. It falls under the category of addictive behavior. I was just transferring that to women. Now I transfer it to Nicorette gum—I’ve been chewing that for six years.

[From Details]

See? He sounds… mature. Okay, whatever, I’m totally hot for him again. I love how he defends Winona, I love what he says about addiction, I love this: “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. Then I got involved with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and their program to encourage graduation. Now I’m an ambassador for education.” Christian Slater for HGF?

Photos courtesy of Details & WENN.

Christian Slater’s acting career seemed to go downhill since he achieved big screen heart throb status in the early 1990s with hits like Pump Up The Volume and True Romance, partially due to his personal problems and trouble with the law. He had a few arrests in the late 90s – for a DUI incident, for trying to bring a gun on a plane, and for an abusive episode with a girlfriend. He spent two months in jail out of a three month sentence in 1998 for the abuse case.

Slater had a very public falling out from his wife and the mother of his two children, Ryan Haddon, around 2003 when she was arrested for assaulting him. Their relationship was said to be volatile, with drug and alcohol abuse playing a factor. They have two children, a son, Jaden Zach Haddon-Slater, 9, and a daughter, Eliana Sophia Haddon-Slater, 7. Slater and Haddon separated in 2004, and Slater quietly went to work on the stage in London.

Slater is still hanging in there, and has continued to act in lesser-known films and on stage. He’s dating Jimmy Choo founder Tamara Mellon and can often be seen at premieres and events with her. He’s also in a new television series, My Own Worst Enemy, which premieres on NBC this fall. Slater spoke to Premiere Magazine about his public trials and coming to terms with his ego. His responses are pretty impressive. You can tell that he’s made peace with his past and has become a more grounded and hardworking person.

Q: Is it possible for you to look forward to a future without the bumps your past has been so full of?

A: Life doesn’t need to be necessarily the roller coaster that it was of my 20s and 30s, but it can be a smoother ride, certainly. It does all come down to personal choice, and listening to your friends and people who really have your back and who are really looking out for you.

This is a hilarious business, and you can get a lot of mixed messages, and ego and bad behavior can sometimes be applauded and rewarded, and you end up thinking, ‘Oh, is that how you’re supposed to be or how you’re supposed to behave?’

It’s unfortunate, because actors, myself included, we can all be divas, and make fools of ourselves, and think we’re entitled to this-and-that, and think we’re all of a sudden something special and unique. We can forget to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ and that the world revolves around us. That’s just not the reality.

Q: You began to take acting classes in your early 30s. What made you decide to do that?

A: When I started in the business, I was certainly very young, so I was learning sort of on-the-job how to do it, and what to do, and where to go. But I didn’t really get why I was doing it or what the purpose was. I just didn’t get it. At a certain point it stopped being fun, and it started to feel like a job, and I didn’t really understand what the job was or what was expected of me all of a sudden, and I was just changing from the kid who got into it to have fun to growing up and realizing I’ve never even worked with an acting teacher.

I thought, ‘What can I do about that?’ So through some friends and some research, I did find an acting coach to work with. I was just relying a lot on little lessons I’d learned, or things I’d picked up from directors here and there, and really didn’t know what the hell I was doing. So I ended up going to work with an acting instructor, and that was great. It was an interesting experience, just in confronting my ego and being in front of a class with other actors.

[From Parade.com]

Parade has a series of new exclusive photos of Slater to accompany the article, and you can view them on their website. They’re airbrushed beyond recognition and he achieves this kind of otherworldly look that seems part plastic surgery, part Photoshop.

I remember drooling over Slater in the 90s rebellion flicks Heathers and Pump Up The Volume. Yes, I was in high school at the time. He didn’t quite become the next Brad Pitt, but he’s got a great attitude about his life and seems grateful for all he’s achieved so far. I’m rooting for his new show to be a success.

Photos courtesy of Parade, where you can see many more of Slater.