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.
Christian Slater
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.
Having kids certainly gets me to ask the question, 'Who is the adult here, and who is the kid?'
Success can be a very difficult thing to deal with.
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.
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.
After I did Untamed Heart 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.
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.
'Pump Up the Volume' 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' 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.
Strike and struggle precede success, even in the dictionary.
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 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.
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.
I enjoy the process of TV; I like the pace of it; I like the continual work.
Jail was a result of me not taking time for myself. So I was forced to take some time for myself.
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.
I've calmed down, certainly, from the days of being 18, but I'm still having a good time.
I've always been fond of Winona Ryder.
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.
When I did 'Young Guns II,' I hung out with Emilio and Kiefer, and I once took a trip with Rob Lowe - we jumped trains.
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.
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 cyberattack. 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 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'm trying not to put myself into anything I'm not 100 percent confident about.
Eighty-five per cent of the time, people want to talk about 'True Romance.' That's the film I've made that really seems to have stuck with people.
The way I see it, if you're going to make an action movie, you've got to make one with John Woo.
The first job I had was a Pampers commercial. And I used to go with my father whenever he would do a performance. I remember clinging to his legs, saying, 'Please. Take me with you.'
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.
If I'm backed into a corner, the first thing that comes to mind is the robot from Forbidden Planet. But that could be me trying to be kitschy, cool, and cultural, because the real answer is R2D2.
Sometimes you can tell a wise person not only by what he says but also by what he doesn't say. Remember, it is much better to say little than to say too much and regret it later.
I had tutors, but education was just not a priority.
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.
Good judgement comes from experience. Sometimes, experience comes from bad judgement.
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?
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.
Hopefully, that people could see a progression in my performances because that's how it's always felt to me.
How do I feel about being a star now? Well I still try to live life and enjoy what I am doing.
I can promote until I am blue in the face, but ultimately nobody knows what makes a hit.
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.
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 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.
I took a lot of time off after Mobsters and although I did something I had never done before, which was to direct a play, The Laughter Epidemic, it felt like a vacation.
I want to do films I can relate to emotionally.
I was a shy, quiet kid. I was happiest playing by myself with my toys, rather than hanging around people.
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'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.
In truth, making films doesn't feel like hard work because I always have such a good time doing it.
My mom put me in a Pampers commercial on TV.
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 videogames. I like them. And to get to be part of one of them would be a fun and exciting thing.
