W-b Diamonds Shine In Debut Against Slamm

4 Players Hit Double Figures As Altoona Downs Hazleton

By AMY LONGSDORF; Times Leader Correspondent
 Sunday, January 11, 1998 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Page: 1G 





BEVERLY HILLS- For the first time in his career, Christian Slater won't be
going to the premiere of his latest movie. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Saturday, barring any last-minute appeals, the star of "Hard Rain" began
doing hard time. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; "All I can do is show up and take responsibility for the mistakes I've
made," says Slater quietly. "I'm accepting the consequences and trying to do
my best to clean up the mess." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The newly clean and sober star of "Heathers," "Interview With The Vampire"
and "Broken Arrow" was ordered last month to serve 90 days for roughing up his
girlfriend and skirmishing with police during a drug and alcohol bender. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Four days after his sentencing, the actor turned up for a pre-arranged
interview at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills dressed in blue jeans, a
navy sweater and, appropriately enough, a pair of rose-colored sunglasses. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "The truth is that the things you're most afraid of, if you just show up
and do the job, it's not as bad as you think its going to be," he says about
deciding to honor his commitment to meet the press. "And I've got a film that
I'm excited about, so I wanted to come here and talk about it," &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Slater is anything but excited about going behind bars. When asked if he's
afraid of spending three months in jail, the usually ebullient actor stares at
the floor and pauses. "Yes, I am," he replies. "But I've been through a lot of
stuff in my life, I will survive. I can get through anything." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The 28-year-old Slater points to his new action film, "Hard Rain" as the
ultimate toughening-up exercise. In the $80 million thriller, which is
scheduled to open Friday in area theaters, Slater ironically is cast as an
armored car cop trying to save the day during a flood. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "I went through six months facing the eye of the storm," he says of making
the movie alongside co-stars Morgan Freeman, Minnie Driver and Randy Quaid.
"We had 30,000 gallons of cold freezing water coming down on our heads every
day. I consider myself prepared for anything." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Slater has had run-ins with the law before. In 1989, he spent 10 days in
the L.A. County Jail for his second drunken-driving offense. In 1994, he slept
behind bars for trying to tote an unlicensed handgun through security at New
York's Kennedy airport. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "My successes are public," says Slater, "and so are my problems. You can
either fight that or go along with it, I'm a movie star, so I just might as
well go with it and deal with it in the most open, the best possible way I
can." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Since his sentencing in December, Slater certainly hasn't lost his sense of
humor. He jokes about one of his drug counselors mistaking him for Danny
Bonaduce from "The Partridge Family" and he snickers when recalling that he
was asked to spend the night on the top floor of the hotel. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "It was touch and go for a while there but I made it," he says, arching the
second most famous eyebrows in the world. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Less amusing, says Slater, was a recent phone call he made to his friend,
actor Robert Downey Jr., who was sent to L.A. County Jail in December to serve
a six-month sentence for violating parole on a recent drug conviction. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "He and I suffer from something that's definitely not a joke," says Slater
evenly. "It's really a matter of life and death. There are repercussions and
consequences to this (drug addiction) thing that he and I have. We have the
same problem. All I know is that you gotta be willing to seek help. You have
to stop pretending that you're running the show." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 In some ways, Slater has been running the show since he was 8, when his
mother, casting agent Mary Jo Slater, landed him a small role on television's
"One Life to Live." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "When I finished the scene," he says, "everybody applauded, and I was
immediately addicted." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Two decades later, Slater seems to have lived enough for two or three
lifetimes. He has appeared in 27 films and he's dated Hollywood beauties
Winona Ryder, Samantha Mathis and Patricia Arquette. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 He has been sued by an ex-girlfriend. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 He has battled alcoholism and drug addiction. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 And, of course, he has been arrested three times. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Slater blames some of his problems on the pressures of Hollywood. "I guess
I had to grow up before I was ready," says the actor whose father, Michael
Gainsborough, was the original Frank Ryan on "Ryan's Hope." "I tried to do my
best, but it's a crazy business. It's more than a little bit wild. You don't
exactly know at the age of 8 all of the things that go along with it." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Slater remembers his adolescence as a wild time, mostly on movie sets. At
age 12, he took his first date- a 35-year-old woman, no less- to the premiere
of "Staying Alive." When he turned 20, his mother hired a stripper to
entertain at his birthday party. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "I once likened my mother to Mama Rose from `Gypsy,' " he says. "That was
her favorite play, the play that made her decide to get into show business." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 In only his second movie, Slater played an apprentice monk opposite Sean
Connery in "The Name of the Rose." Among other things, the youngster was
called upon to pretend to lose his virginity during a seduction scene. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "Sean says I was the kid they expected to be an adult. I did my best, but
it was definitely a scary time for me. Just to be in the presence of people
like that. And I didn't understand fully what I was doing there. When they
shaved my head for the movie, I thought, `Now, I've got to deal with this.'
I'm only 16. It was definitely a scary experience for me." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Rising quickly through the Hollywood ranks, Slater shone as the
sarcasm-spouting rabble-rouser in "Heathers," the misunderstood teen DJ in
"Pump Up the Volume," the rebellious Will Scarlett in "Robin Hood: Prince of
Thieves," the seen-it-all reporter in "Interview with the Vampire" and the
comic book store clerk turned cocaine-dealing crook in "True Romance." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Yet, Slater says, he was rarely happy. "You get to a certain level, reach a
certain plateau, and it's not as fulfilling as you thought it would be," he
says. "You have to change your belief system a great deal. That's what I had
to do. I thought I had to suffer for my art." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 As Slater sees it, his first mistake was taking all the James Dean
comparisons to heart. "You think if you've lived longer than James Dean and
you've been compared to him that maybe you did something wrong. But I've since
discovered that there's life after 24." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Slater's current problems stem from an Aug. 11, 1997 party during which a
man tried to stop the actor from punching his own girlfriend, fashion editor
Michelle Jona. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 When the police arrived, Slater threw one of the officers against a wall
and tried to grab his gun. Later, he admitted he had been consuming heroin,
cocaine and alcohol "for a couple days and had only a couple hours of sleep." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Since his arrest, the actor has spent 118 days in a re-hab program. He also
worked on two movies, both of which he co-produced. There's "Basil," an 18th
century romance co-starring Jared Leto and Claire Forlani, and "Very Bad
Things," a black comedy with Cameron Diaz, Daniel Stern and Jeanne
Tripplehorn. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "I'm taking control of my life," Slater says. "I definitely am through with
that extremely irresponsible stage where I was just doing what I wanted." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Slater says he's here for the long haul. Looking out the window of his
hotel suite, he takes off his sunglasses and smiles. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "The sun is shining. I'm just asking myself, `What can I learn today?' " &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Before he leaves, Slater divulges his New Year's resolution. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

Hard Times 
`hard Rain' Star Christian Slater, Now 
Clean And Sober, Works To Rebuild His 
Life As He Begins Jail Time For Hitting 
His Girlfriend And Assaulting Police

Hard Times `hard Rain' Star Christian Slater, Now Clean And Sober, Works To Rebuild His Life As He Begins Jail Time For Hitting His Girlfriend And Assaulting Police