Christian Slater is known for playing some pretty messed up roles (J.D. in Heathers – the role that made my 17 year old self totally fall in love with him – and Robert Boyd in Very Bad Things) and his off-screen life has been equally messed up. Arrested numerous times, with a jail sentence under his belt, in and out of rehab and sentenced to anti-domestic violence classes, he’s been a typical Hollywood bad boy.

But a few years ago he took a good hard look at his life and decided to make some changes. He made a list of things to accomplish and change. He got sober, for one. He also decided to finish high school. Slater recently sat down with Parade Magazine and talked about it – and it wasn’t easy for him.

�I had to go to a high school classroom with a bunch of kids getting their GED,� Slater says. �It was a three-day test. I did very well on the reading portions of it. I was very proud of that.�

Math was another story. �That was never a good subject for me,� he says. �I hated math. So I hired a tutor. I studied all the things that might come up on the test.� But the powers that be had apparently updated the exam, and the mathematics section had changed significantly. �So I had studied all the wrong material,� Slater tells me. �Now they hand me this test, and it�s got graphs and things like that. I thought, �Oh, God…� I really thought I totally blew it, that I was going to have to take this test again, and how embarrassing that would be!� He laughs. �But it ended up that I squeaked by. That was a good moment.�

I know a lot of child stars (Christian started working when he was 10) often get so busy that they don’t ever bother to finish high school, and I think it’s great that Christian finally did. I think it also shows people that it’s never too late – so if you haven’t finished high school, go do it!

[ Images by WENN ]

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