Our series in which writers reveal the movie characters they identify with, Ben Child admires Christian Slater's genius for creating mesmerisingly cool oddballs especially ones who get the girl (with a Tarantino twist)
Michael Hann: why I'd like to be Steve Carell
Peter Walker: why I'd like to be Toni Servillo
Celine Biljeveld: why I'd like to be Goldie Hawn
Christian Slater was the James Dean of the late 80s and early 1990s, a rock star-like figure with the kind of mesmeric screen presence that could send otherwise perfectly ordinary teen movies into cult classic territory. He epitomised the sort of determined outsiderdom that I, a spotty young indie kid growing up in rural Norfolk, wore with even greater pomp than my Ride T-shirt and Doc Marten boots.
Slater always seemed to play the new kid in town, a mysterious stranger primed to cause chaos in whichever suburb of middle America he happened to be passing through. In 1990's underrated Pump Up the Volume he is plain old high school newbie Mark Hunter, who during the day struggles inexplicably to talk to girls and sits alone eating his lunchtime sandwiches. At night, however, he puts on a Leonard Cohen record or two and like a sort of hipster Bananaman is transformed into pirate radio shock-jock Happy Harry Hard-on, broadcasting to the youth of his rural Arizona home town with a Bill Hicks-like blend of horndog tomfoolery and charismatic insightfulness.
Continue reading... Reported by guardian.co.uk 1 day ago.
Michael Hann: why I'd like to be Steve Carell
Peter Walker: why I'd like to be Toni Servillo
Celine Biljeveld: why I'd like to be Goldie Hawn
Christian Slater was the James Dean of the late 80s and early 1990s, a rock star-like figure with the kind of mesmeric screen presence that could send otherwise perfectly ordinary teen movies into cult classic territory. He epitomised the sort of determined outsiderdom that I, a spotty young indie kid growing up in rural Norfolk, wore with even greater pomp than my Ride T-shirt and Doc Marten boots.
Slater always seemed to play the new kid in town, a mysterious stranger primed to cause chaos in whichever suburb of middle America he happened to be passing through. In 1990's underrated Pump Up the Volume he is plain old high school newbie Mark Hunter, who during the day struggles inexplicably to talk to girls and sits alone eating his lunchtime sandwiches. At night, however, he puts on a Leonard Cohen record or two and like a sort of hipster Bananaman is transformed into pirate radio shock-jock Happy Harry Hard-on, broadcasting to the youth of his rural Arizona home town with a Bill Hicks-like blend of horndog tomfoolery and charismatic insightfulness.
Continue reading... Reported by guardian.co.uk 1 day ago.
