Christian Slater detailed his tumultuous relationship with his father in legal papers claiming that the elder Slater tried to kill the “Mr. Robot” star and his mother.
In a declaration filed last week, Slater — who’s being sued by his father — says that his father, a former actor, suffers from schizophrenia and was taken to Bellevue Hospital in 1972 “in a strait-jacket after threatening to kill both my mother and me.”
The actor continued, “I have always understood that plaintiff had pushed my mother into a street in front of a car when she was pregnant with me.”
The elder Slater sued his son for $20 million in February, claiming that the “Mr. Robot” star had described him as suffering from manic-depressive schizophrenia in an interview last year.
In his declaration, Slater addresses the 2015 interview, stating that, at the time, “I genuinely believed that Plaintiff was ‘manic-depressive schizophrenic’” and knew of his father’s mental illness through “multiple sources” who he had no reason to doubt.
Slater noted in his declaration that he’s been estranged from his father since his parents’ divorce more than 40 years ago, but that he has paid him “for his agreement to see a psychiatrist to address his schizophrenia.”
The actor goes on to allege that his father has said “many terrible things” about his mother, and that his father has claimed Slater is successful “only because he is my father.”
In his suit, Thomas Knight Slater claims that he’s been “blacklisted in the show-business community” following “an ongoing slandering, libeling and defaming” of him by Slater and his mother, Mary Jo Slater, who’s also named as a defendant in the suit.
In his declaration, Slater stated that his father has not had any steady acting work, or steady income, since 1988. The elder Slater worked occasionally as an actor under the name Michael Hawkins, appearing on series including “As the World Turns,” “Search for Tomorrow” and “Ryan’s Hope.”
Pamela Chelin contributed to this report.