An Evening with Christian Slater, Interviewed by Neda Ulaby

The New Albany Lecture Series wraps up its 13th season with Christian Slater Award Winning Actor & Mental Health Advocate.

CHRISTIAN SLATER

With humor and sincerity, Christian Slater discusses his life and work, from growing up in New York City as a child actor to achieving worldwide fame at a young age, capturing the extraordinary highs and lows of a remarkable life nearly destroyed by drug addiction and the excruciating, humanizing process of starting over again.

Slater grew up in a subsidized housing project in Hell’s Kitchen, raised by a single mother and haunted by an unpredictable, schizophrenic father. He had a professionally printed resumé by age four and debuted on Broadway at age nine, permanently dropping out of traditional school to appear as Winthrop in The Music Man opposite Dick Van Dyke for eight shows a week, plus a national tour.

At fifteen, Slater starred opposite Sean Connery in The Name of the Rose, and enjoyed an ascendant stardom for years thereafter, starring in iconic roles in Heathers, Pump up the Volume, Robin Hood, True Romance, and Interview with the Vampire. His struggles with alcohol and drug addiction grew as his star rose, finally spilling into the public sphere and threatening his life, his family, and his career.

Now twenty years sober, Slater speaks openly about his recovery journey, growing up in the limelight, his approach to maintaining a long and fulfilling career, and his experience as an actor across stage, tv, and film. His story of recovery and taking his life back amidst the wreckage of drug and alcohol abuse is an inspiration to those struggling with addiction and anyone facing seemingly insurmountable circumstances. His willingness to share his story speaks to his dedication to destigmatizing mental illness and championing increased access to robust mental health and recovery support systems.

Slater’s experience finding meaning as an artist across decades is an example to anyone looking to build a long-term and resonant career that defies convention. His perspective as an actor and producer who has worked with some of Hollywood’s most respected writers and directors— Quentin Tarantino, Francis Ford Coppola, Jean-Jacques Annaud, Tony Scott, John Woo, Lars von Trier, Eric Idle, and Sam Esmail — provides a singular window into a rarefied world, relevant to anyone interested in the hard-won artistic lessons and extraordinary life experiences of a New York kid who achieved the impossible.

As the title character of Mr. Robot, Slater won a Golden Globe and a Critics’ Choice Award and shared in the show’s Peabody, Critics’ Choice, Golden Globe, and AFI Award wins as a producer of the series. Since then, he’s starred in Dirty John , Dr. Death , Blink Twice , and Dexter: Original Sin , Showtime’s most viewed show in ten years. His performance in Dr. Death also earned him a Critics’ Choice Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Slater has enjoyed a storied stage career as well, leading a smash-hit West End revival of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, which opened to rave reviews and closed after two extensions and 150 sold-out shows. He’s also lit up the stage in productions of The Glass Menagerie , Spamalot , and Glengarry Glen Ross. His latest stage credit is as Weston Tate in the off- Broadway revival of Sam Shepard’s Curse of the Starving Class , starring opposite Calista Flockhart.

From Hell’s Kitchen to Broadway, from fan- mail services and MTV Movie Awards to Peabody’s and Golden Globes, from studios to streamers, from Teen Beat to the New York Times, Christian Slater survived child stardom and teen idolatry, addiction and public collapse to forge cultural relevance in a new era. In his fifth decade as a working actor, he is ready to share his story.

NEDA ULABY

Neda Ulaby reports on arts, entertainment, and cultural trends for NPR’s Arts Desk.

Scouring the various and often overlapping worlds of art, music, television, film, new media and literature, Ulaby’s stories reflect political and economic realities, cultural issues, obsessions and transitions.

A twenty-year veteran of NPR, Ulaby started as a temporary production assistant on the cultural desk, opening mail, booking interviews and cutting tape with razor blades. Over the years, she’s also worked as a producer and editor and won a Gracie award from the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation for hosting a podcast of NPR’s best arts stories.

Ulaby also hosted the Emmy-award winning public television series Arab American Stories in 2012 and earned a 2019 Knight-Wallace Fellowship at the University of Michigan. She’s also been chosen for fellowships at the Getty Arts Journalism Program at USC Annenberg and the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism.

Before coming to NPR, Ulaby worked as managing editor of Chicago’s Windy City Times and co-hosted a local radio program, What’s Coming Out at the Movies. A former doctoral student in English literature, Ulaby has contributed to academic journals and taught classes in the humanities at the University of Chicago, Northeastern Illinois University and at high schools serving at-risk students.

Ulaby worked as an intern for the features desk of the Topeka Capital-Journal after graduating from Bryn Mawr College. But her first appearance in print was when she was only four days old. She was pictured on the front page of the New York Times, as a refugee, when she and her parents were evacuated from Amman, Jordan, during the conflict known as Black September.