NEED TO KNOW
Christian Slater is reflecting on the “shocking” moments in Mr. Robot that, at times, made him squirm.
Speaking at the Mr. Robot 10th anniversary event at New York Comic Con on Oct. 9, 2025, the 56-year-old was asked about the many twists and turns in the show, which he noted “was extraordinarily complex.”
The show, which aired on USA Network from 2015 to 2019, followed a young computer programmer named Elliot (played by Rami Malek) who works as a cybersecurity engineer during the day and is a vigilante hacker by night. Elliot is recruited by the mysterious leader of an underground group of hackers (played by Slater) to join their organization.
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In the show, it is revealed that Slater’s character is actually a figment of Elliot’s imagination, and is his deceased father. The groundbreaking series earned Malek a Primetime Emmy and Slater a Golden Globe.
Speaking at the event, Slater recalled meeting with Sam Esmail before filming began and the creator told him about the shocking twist.
“I got very excited about it,” he recalled, thinking the concept was “really cool.”
“I remember when I read the script the first time and I had an instinct about it, too,” he said. “There was just some feeling I had. And then I met with Sam, and I said, ‘Is this guy, Mr. Robot, is he really there?’ And he was like, ‘Do you really want to know?’ ”
“I said, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah.’ And he told me, and I just got really excited about it. That was really cool. To play a figment of somebody’s imagination was just that much more exciting for me,” the actor continued.
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However, Esmail didn’t tell him about all the twists coming in later seasons.
“And then look, that was season 1, and there were other things, of course, that came up that were surprising, that were shocking, that at times I had difficulty even accepting or being comfortable with,” Slater said. “But I think that was part of the challenge of the show and the things that made it that much more special, and you just had to get out of the way of yourself and your own ego.”
He continued, “And again, go back to appreciating the moment. This was something very, very special, and we were talking about mental health and childhood trauma and all those kinds of subjects that were very difficult to tackle, and it made me uncomfortable at times. But [Esmail] was always great, always there, and I think held all of our hands through the whole thing and made it make sense to people.”
The 10th anniversary event brought together series creator Esmail with stars Malek and Slater in a special live taping of Josh Horowitz’s Happy Sad Confused podcast.
Elsewhere during the taping, Slater said “the coolest thing” about making the show was learning about each season’s new plotlines.
“That was the coolest thing. I mean… getting a phone call from [Esmail] and listening to him for two and a half hours go through the whole season was awesome,” he said.
Slater and his wife, Brittany Lopez, share two children: daughter Lena, born in 2019, and a son, who arrived in July 2024. Slater is also dad to son Jaden, 26, and daughter Eliana, 24, whom he shares with ex-wife Ryan Haddon.
