Where Has Christian Slater Been Since His '90s Stardom?

Publish date: 2024-03-20

While Christian Slater starred in one entertaining movie after another in the 1980s and 1990s, his films were, for the most part, pure entertainment, sometimes frivolous, and usually geared toward an audience of teens, young adults, and multiplex customers — not so much earning the attention or love of movie critics. In the 2000s, that all changed. Slater kept making movies, but the kinds of projects in which he chose to appear were suddenly more mature, subtle, smaller, or could charitably described as "Oscar bait." In 2000 — having not appeared in a major film since 1998's twin flops of Hard Rain and Very Bad Things — Slater played a powerful member of Congress in the acclaimed political drama The Contender. The actor's reinvention continued with 3000 Miles to Graceland, Windtalkers, and an arc as Lt. Commander Jack Reese on the beloved, Emmy-gobbling The West Wing.

Slater took some chances, and very little of his 2000s output was financially successful, however. Judging by the lowly box office receipts, even the most devoted fans likely missed small-scale, small-grossing fare like Who Is Cletis Tout?, Alone in the Dark, Bullet to the Head, and Playback, which took in just $264 in 2012.

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