Entertainment

Slater's A <I>Contender</I>

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

October 19, 2000 / 4:38 PM EDT / CBS

As the campaign season lurches into its final weeks, Hollywood is offering its own political potboiler, The Contender, which depicts the controversial confirmation of the first female vice president.

In the film, Christian Slater plays a young congressman who gets embroiled in the confirmation. Slater told the CBS News Early Show that The Contender is not the type of film he normally seeks out, but the role was brought to his attention by his mother, Mary Jo Slater, who is the film's casting director.

"I'm learning to get out of the way and get the guidance of the lovely women in my life," said Slater, who married Ryan Haddon in February.

The Contender portrays the sexist treatment of the vice presidential nominee, played by Joan Allen, who's publicly vilified during the confirmation for her sex life.

Slater, 31, said that his own views of women have evolved as he's matured and that's he's "very proud of the film.

"I have a theory that women are probably more in touch with the rhythm of life than men," he said.

Some critics have derided The Contender for its heavy-handed approach to Washington's apparent endemic sexism. The film is "so crudely written as to make its espousing of progressive principles seem crassly exploitative to the point of self-parody," writes the Boston Globe's Jay Carr.

Audiences don't seem to mind. The Contender came in at number five on the list of last weekend's top grossing movies, taking $5.5 million.

Slater, who said he's happily married now, has had his own share of personal controversy and brushes with the law. In 1989, he was arrested for leading the police on a drunken car chase. Five years later he was again arrested for taking a gun aboard the plane.

The actor was arrested again in 1997 for attacking his girlfriend and biting a police officer. He was sentenced to 90-days in jail and later admitted to have been taking cocaine and heroin at the time.

Slater said his personal struggles have given him some important insights. "I guess one of the most important lessons or things I've discovered is things seem to work out better when you get out of the way," he said.

"I guess there is a tapestry of life, you have to let it all unfold the way it naturally does," Slater said. "You have to get out of the way, let it all happen."

Despite the troubles Slater has maintained an active film career. He got his start in movies at 16 in The Legend of Billie Jean, and got positive notice in The Name of the Rose, opposite Sean Connery. Other Slater films include Tucker, Heathers, Gleaming the Cube, Hard Rain, Pump up the Volume, Bed of Roses, and Broken Arrow.

Slater and his wife Ryan Haddon have an 18-month-old son, Jaden. Slater said he ws well-prepared to be father having gotten hands-on parenting experience as a 15-year-old, with birth of his brother, Ryan Slater. For the next three years, the Slater brothers shared a room.

"I did have some experience prior to having my own son, changing diapers and getting up at night," Slater said.

Slater said he is enjoying fatherhood. "I really just kind of let him educate me," he said. "It shows me how important it is to really be as present as possible for your child."