Looking at his movie creds, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/2224-christian-slater, I can't see anything I recognise until 2003's Two and a Half Men.
I know every star's career has an upward and then a downward trajectory, but his seems to be very extreme given his heights in the 90s.
https://lebeauleblog.com/2012/09/20/what-the-hell-happened-to-christian-slater/
People also point out that Slater’s mom got him into the business. Sure, having a casting director for a mother is definitely a leg-up in a competitive business. A lot of celebrities had connections to show biz either through family or friends. Nepotism is a thing. I don’t hold that against Slater or anyone else. Of course if you have a family member who can get you a job, you’re going to make the most of that opportunity. At the end of the day, Slater’s mom got him a foot in the door. He’s had to do the work himself.share
The weird thing is, Slater was never really a big movie star. It seemed like he was because in the 90’s he was all over the place. He was hosting Saturday Night Live and dating Hollywood starlets. He was in movies, but he never starred in a hit. Even the movies that people like and remember like Heathers and True Romance weren’t hits at the time. So while Slater had the trappings of a movie star, he never really had the box office clout to back that title up.
The question here is why Slater could never capitalize on the buzz he had early on in his career. Certainly his legal problems didn’t help. It’s one thing to star in a flop like Hard Rain. But a big part of that movie’s problem was that Slater couldn’t promote its release because he was in jail. If you were considering casting Slater in a big budget action movie, you had to risk the possibility that he might be more of a liability than an asset.
These days, Slater is working steadily. But the days of starring in big projects are long gone and he’s been relegated to direct-to-video movies and TV shows. He seems to have found his stride with the success of Mr. Robot. Hopefully he can ride that out for a while before returning to DTV thrillers.
He starred in a few of hits.
Young Guns II
Robin Hood
Interview with a vampire
He did seem to be in the tabloids in his day, making him appear more famous.
I'd argue he wasn't the star of those and more a supporting character. He was the star of Pump Up The Volume, True Romance and Kuffs, which didn't pull the numbers (though I love those movies). Try as he might, he just couldn't make the leap to A list. He still has had a great career.
shareYep, and he didn't even get top-billing for Broken Arrow, John Travolta did.
shareHe never really looked good enough to be a big star he was more of a character actor.
shareThe 2000s happened. Christian Slater's brand of cool just wasn't in style anymore.
shareI THINK YOU NAILED IT.
share100% correct. He was an 90's actor just like how Rob Lowe was an 80's actor.
share80s and 90s. Heathers was 89. True Romance was 93. Those are his early peaks, I guess. (Although to be honest, Winona Ryder carried Heathers. Slater was along for the ride. But True Romance was definitely his film.)
shareI think the 00s were difficult for him because he was getting too old for the roles that he had been typecast in, but was still too young for the dad type roles. (just like so many actresses) But I think Nymphomaniac showed that he can now play the older characters, and like others have said he did really well on Mr. Robot.
It's kind of like the character of Brian from Gleaming the Cube, a lot of people still see him as the bad boy skater but his career needs to be more post makeover.
Last I saw of him was Dolan’s Cadillac in 09. He was terrible and so was the rest of the movie. Good short story from King, though.
shareYou guys are missing the point or don’t remember this far back. Christian Slater downward trajectory was caused by his legal problems and that he was deemed uninsurable by the studios.
He was also a heavy cocaine user and even tried to beat up Mike Tyson back in 95. John Woo had to lobby hard to get him the part in Broker Arrow. Christian Slater is one of Woo`s favorite actors.
By 1997 he was no longer considered an A lister by Hollywood standards. I met Slater back a few times back in mid-90`s. He was always a nice guy. I saw in again in 2015 in Coconut Grove, outside of Miami. He was smiling and posing with fans. Very down to earth guy.
I didn’t know he was considered a junkie and blacklisted.
shareWTF Happened to CHRISTIAN SLATER???
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zj_zF2Rx9e0
WTF Happened To This Celebrity? – The JoBlo series that examines the careers of stars and filmmakers who may have fallen out of the spotlight, and tells where they are now!share
In the 1990s, Christian Slater was at the height of his fame thanks to memorable movies like HEATHERS, TRUE ROMANCE and BROKEN ARROW, but he also gained notoriety after some trouble with the law. The next couple of decades became filled with failed TV series and direct-to-video movies, before a recent resurgence with the hit show MR. ROBOT. Arch your eyebrows and do your best Jack impersonation as we find out “WTF Happened to Christian Slater!”