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Christian Slater was on The Tonight Show to promote his new show Dirty John: Betty Broderick Story, which co-stars Amanda Peet and is based on the true story of Betty Broderick’s 1989 murder of her ex husband and his new wife. Christian told Jimmy that he loved all the old technology on set and that it was fun to see the young people try to figure out what it was. He also was quite thoughtful when talking about privilege and Black Lives Matter. He said he would probably be in prison now if he wasn’t a white guy. That was one of the best statements I’ve heard from a celebrity. I enjoyed this interview and came away liking Christian for the most part. I used to watch Heathers and Pump Up The Volume so much in high school and he’s still very hot to me. He’s 50 and has a 9-month-old baby, daughter Lena. Christian’s wife Brittany is 30, they’ve been married for 5 years (sideeye) and this is their first child together. He also has a 19-year-old daughter and a 21-year-old son from his first marriage, which ended in 2007. Here’s some of what he told Jimmy and the interview is below.

“Where are you and how are you?”
I’m in Miami with my family so that’s been great. These have just been surreal times. Of course I’m horrified by the murder or George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and countless black men, women and children. So on the one hand, it’s great that there is a rising up here to make significant change.

He said he would be in prison if he wasn’t a white guy
I have crossed paths with the police a few times myself and they didn’t murder me because the system isn’t designed that way. I was allowed to get help, get off drugs and alcohol and today, I’ll go to a place like Rikers Island and talk to inmates. They’re pretty much guilty of things that I’ve done, but when the meeting ends, I can leave. It’s pretty much skin color that determines that. Clearly we’re in a crazy broken system. This society has no right to call itself civilized until all of its citizens are treated with equality. I’m working on listening and educating myself as much as possible.

On the old technology on set
This is definitely a tabloid story from the 80s. What was really fun about it was the style. We really got to go back in time. Some of the kids would walk around the set and go ‘what’s that?’

‘That was a telephone, that was what we used to use. It had a rotary thing.’

“I feel like that’s a game we could play on The Tonight Show. The VHS rewinder remember that?”
Exactly. Or like an 8 track.

[From The Tonight Show on YouTube]

My son, mom, dad and I were all talking on the Echo Show about old technology and the VCR rewinder specifically came up. (The Echo Show is the kind of technology I dreamed about as a kid, but it’s more annoying and less useful than I thought it would be.) Sometimes I get nostalgic for old technology, but then I realize we can watch whatever we want, whenever we want, from almost anywhere and that we can videochat with anyone anywhere for free! Just last week I was talking to my son about long distance charges and how we used to get in trouble with our parents and roommates for expensive phone bills. Then the Internet came and changed everything. I can’t imagine where we’ll go from here though. Will we be able to videochat with full size 3D versions of ourselves that look real? That would be so cool.

Also, I really liked what he said about how he’s going to listen and how he realized that he could easily have ended up in prison for years. I was just reading his arrest record on wiki and he has convictions for DUI, trying to board a plane with a gun, assaulting a police officer and groping a woman. He’s right, he could still be in prison now.

Here’s that interview. His dog comes on camera at around 5 minutes in. He has a life size stormtrooper that’s older than his wife, which he told Jimmy he got at Sharper Image. At that point they started bonding over Sharper Image and Sky Mall.

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