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Christian Slater Opens Up About Reconnecting With His Estranged Father: “He’s a Manic-Depressive Schizophrenic”

Christian Slater
Christian Slater opened up about reconnecting with his estranged father Michael Hawkins

During a candid chat in Interview magazine with his Nymphomaniac director, Lars von Trier, Christian Slater opened up about how his famous father, Michael Hawkins, suffers from manic-depressive schizophrenia.

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“He’s always had trouble — he was a fantastic actor and extraordinarily charismatic and very, very good looking, but he had a really difficult time working with directors, collaborating with people,” Slater said, explaining his 79-year-old famous father is a “manic-depressive schizophrenic.”

Slater went nine years without speaking to his father because he was “in the middle of the relationship between his mother and father and needed to get out of that.” The 45-year-old actor revealed he still hasn’t seen his father in years, but told Trier that they’ve reconnected, revealing that Hawkins is “in a place now, getting a lot of help from someone.”

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"In the last few months my father actually reached out to me and wanted to reconcile and reconnect,” Slater, now a dad himself, admitted. “I was very grateful to be able to communicate with him. From a tumultuous, back-and-forth relationship, we were able to begin to build a better bridge for the both of us. So that was good."

But not all relationships in Slater’s life are strained. In fact, his 16-year-old son, Jaden, whom he shares with ex-wife Ryan Haddon, is moving in with him and now-wife Brittany Lopez. The actor also has a 13-year-old daughter named Eliana with Haddon.

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“When I look around…I’m certainly happily married [and] I have a great relationship with my [own] kids," he gushed, adding that he's "excited to get the opportunity to be a bit more of a father in his [son’s] life.”

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