Christian Slater Almost Lost One Of His Most Iconic Roles For Sounding Like Jack Nicholson

In the episode of "The Critic" called "Sherman, Woman, and Child" (March 5, 1995), there is an amusing, brief spoof called "A Few More Good Men," which is said to star Jack Nicholson, Christian Slater, and William Devane. The spoof re-enacts the famed "You can't handle the truth" scene from Rob Reiner's 1992 classic "A Few Good Men," only with Slater in the Tom Cruise role. The joke of the scene is that both Nicholson and Slater sound identical. The truth Slater can't handle is that he imitates Nicholson with every phrase and mannerism. William Devane plays the stenographer, and he, too, sounds the same as Nicholson and Slater. 

This sketch from 1995 was emblematic of how many filmgoers felt about Slater at the time. Although a unique actor possessed of his own brand of smarmy charm, many viewed Slater as a pale imitation of Jack Nicholson, right down to the way he moved his eyebrows. Slater began his professional screen career in 1985, with a notable role in the teen rebellion drama "The Legend of Billie Jean." The following year, he landed two high-profile leading roles, and in 1989, he starred in Michael Lehmann's twisted cult comedy "Heathers." Slater played the rebellious murderer J.D., the one man who could (violently) rescue the beleaguered Veronica (Winona Ryder) from the empty-headed popular girls' clique at their high school.

Slater became a legit heartthrob for the better part of a decade thanks to "Heathers," a film that is still beloved to this day. Back in 2016, Lehmann was interviewed by Walter Chaw for the Denver Center for Performing Arts, and the director confirmed that people were comparing Slater to Nicholson back then. Indeed, Slater's similarities to Nicholson almost cost him the job.

Lehmann said in the interview that he wanted to cast as many actual teenagers as possible in "Heathers," as he didn't like the Hollywood trend of casting 28-year-olds as high schoolers. The problem with that approach is that teenage boys, he felt, were simply way less mature than teenage girls. As such, finding a 15-year-old to play J.D. was a near-impossible task. Lehmann noted that all the boys he auditioned were unsophisticated actors who merely imitated other actors. He made note of all the boys who imitated a young Al Pacino, and, naturally, all the would-be James Dean types. When Slater auditioned, he sounded so much like Jack Nicholson, Lehmann assumed he, too, was just imitating another actor. It took a few extra words for Lehmann to notice that, well, that was just the way Slater spoke. In Lehmann's words: 

"Christian came in late in the process, and by that point we just expected that everybody would imitate somebody. And so for him, it was, 'Oh, this guy sounds like Jack Nicholson.' I was mixed about it at first. I thought it was distracting. Everybody loved Jack Nicholson at that time. He was at the height of his career. So there were times when I told Christian to pull back on the Nicholson. But I am telling you – that's how he talks. And at one point he confessed to me: 'I love his work. I look at what he does in his darker movies and how he manages to find the comedy in it.'" 

So, Lehmann noted, Slater had a reason for leaning into a Nicholson-like performance. But really, he was naturally a Nicholson type. He was 19 at the time, and he was 100% the correct choice.