Christian Slater has been down the series television road before, with My Own Worst Enemy and The Forgotten. And though his previous attempts failed to catch on, he’s still optimistic that his latest comedy Breaking In will connect with fans.
“What I teach my kids is the only way to fail is not to try,” Slateradmonishes. “We just keep going. I’m three for three now with shows at least being picked up. …I’ve definitely learned each time I’ve done one of these things. This is a clear character-driven comedy with some interesting, quirky people.”
After thoughtful analysis, Slater can now look back on the previous two series and understand what it was they were lacking.
“With My Own Worst Enemy, that was a show that in my opinion – certainly as an actor was a great opportunity,” he begins. “But, they were never really clear if it was going to be a comedy or a drama. A clear choice needed to be made and that didn’t happen. With The Forgotten, obviously it was Jerry Bruckheimer…great producer, interesting show, fascinating premise…hard to build a show where every episode ends at a funeral. It’s just not uplifting and it doesn’t leave people feeling really great. Although we did solve some real cases, that was a nice little cherry at the end of that journey and I did end up finding my daughter, so at least we had closure.”
Slater did have concerns about Oz, the character he portrays on Breaking In, but the actor says he was given license to develop a unique personality for Oz.
“When I first read the script, you could kind of tell that the Oz character wasn’t necessarily as fleshed out as it necessarily could have been,” he recalls. “I think they were looking for an actor who could contribute whatever he could contribute. I would just make suggestions and they would incorporate things that made me very, very happy.”
It also helps to have a great lead in and Breaking In follows American Idolon Wednesday nights, 9:30 p.m. ET/PT on FOX
Source: Hollywood Outbreak
