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      Christian Slater Is a Still-Life Artist

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      The former teen idol actor talks about his career comeback, being a father again and sketching his wife.John Varriano, an instructor at the Art Students League, stood behind Christian Slater’s easel, studying the lines that the 51-year-old actor had sketched. “You have chops, man,” Mr. Varriano said. “You have got to keep practicing, man.”On a steamy June morning, Mr. Slater, spruce in a white denim jacket, black slacks and green sneakers, had arrived at the art school’s home in Midtown Manhattan for a still-life tutorial.A movie star from the 1980s and ’90s — “Heathers,” “True Romance,” “Pump Up the Volume” — Mr. Slater now wears glasses and his stubble has gone gray. Behind those glasses, his eyes still have that signature twinkle — a twinkle like a floodlight — that made him crush material for misunderstood girls everywhere. When he chatted with Mr. Varriano about New York City in the 1970s or Matisse’s paper cuts, that daredevil grin surfaced, too.Back when he lived in New York, Mr. Slater wandered into the art school for the occasional drawing class. He began to pursue visual art more seriously a few years ago, at the suggestion of his wife, Brittany Lopez, who signed him up for art classes (watercolors and pastels) at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, near their Miami home.“I was in between jobs and my wife was like, ‘You’ve got to do something,’” Mr. Slater said, his voice like finely milled gravel. “And I loved it. It’s great. It’s definitely meditative and relaxing.” He has to do something creative on a regular basis, he said, “or else I’ll lose my mind.”Mr. Slater never quite lost his mind, between jobs or during them, but he did have a wobbly decade or two, when the bad-boy roles he booked bled into his daily life. “You travel down certain roads,” he said. “And you realize that maybe those aren’t the roads that you want to continue to travel.”Victor Llorente for The New York TimesVictor Llorente for The New York TimesSo Mr. Slater chose other ones. He got sober 16 years ago. (When Mr. Varriano offered beer, at 11 a.m., Mr. Slater politely declined, asking for a water.) He divorced and remarried and again became a father. After years of taking whatever parts he could get (“I was working a lot but, spending a lot of time in places like Bulgaria,” he said), he is now experiencing something of a career Renaissance, thanks to his Golden Globe-winning turn on “Mr. Robot.”“I’m at a place of such utter gratitude to have people interested in hiring me again,” he said.For his latest project, he has traded a bad-boy role for a good-guy one in “Dr. Death,” a limited series on Peacock based on a true-crime podcast. Mr. Slater stars as Randall Kirby, a vascular surgeon who drives a sports car, loves opera and wears flashy surgical wraps. When he discovers that a neurosurgeon, Christopher Duntsch (Joshua Jackson), has maimed several patients, he fights to expose him.“It’s definitely not the type of character that I would typically play,” Mr. Slater said. “Like, typically, I would be Dr. Death, right? I would be the killer.” But Randall Kirby, who is quirky and ethical, is the type of character he gravitates toward now.In the paint-scarred studio, Mr. Varriano presented various options for a still life. “The flowers maybe?” Mr. Slater said, pointing at a bouquet. “Give that a go?”After arranging the flowers atop a wooden block, Mr. Varriano added a curly-haired bust to the tableau and handed Mr. Slater an assortment of charcoal sticks.“This charcoal’s nice,” Mr. Slater said.“See,” Mr. Varriano said, proudly. “He knows his stuff!”With a swooping motion, Mr. Slater laid down his first line. “That’s it,” Mr. Varriano said. “The first one is always the hardest. Well, actually the second, third, fourth and fifth are equally hard.”Victor Llorente for The New York TimesHe observed that Mr. Slater drew with his left hand (“A southpaw, I wouldn’t box him”) and gently encouraged him to rethink a few angles. Then he stepped back. “I’m not saying a word,” Mr. Varriano said. “No, no, just roll, man. Just keep rolling. Make believe no one’s in the room.”Mr. Slater laughed. “Draw like nobody’s watching,” he said, smudging a line with his middle finger.Mr. Slater sketched for 10 minutes or so. He adjusted the angles of the block and made a first pass at the spherical shape of the head. He then took a break to show Mr. Varriano some of his early work. He pulled out his phone to show his version of Matisse’s “Bather” rendered in blue painter’s tape, then Michelangelo’s “Pieta” drawn with pencils, and a sketch of his wife in charcoal. “She hates this one, he said.­Mr. Varriano didn’t. “That’s actually really good,” he said. “I’m not just saying that. I can understand why she wouldn’t like it. But so what?”The phone disappeared back into a pocket, and Mr. Slate returned his focus to the bust. The head began to take shape, the brow ridge, the nose, the ears, the curls. He drew with quick, precise strokes, squinting, chin thrust forward, a half-smile ghosting his face.“I’m wiping and drawing and having a grand old time,” he said. He added that he was renovating an apartment nearby, “so I can start to come more often.”Mr. Varriano approved. “You’ll go down the rabbit hole like the rest of us,” he said cheerfully. “You’ll ruin your life.”Mr. Slater thought that was a fine idea. The hour zipped past. Mr. Slater never made it to the flowers. He seemed pleased with what he had accomplished, though he left his sketch clipped to the easel. Until the next time. More

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      Conan O’Brien Bids Farewell to Late Night

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      After 28 years on late-night television and 11 years on TBS, O’Brien is moving on to HBO Max.Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night’s highlights that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.To Be ContinuedAfter 28 years on late night and 11 years on TBS, Conan O’Brien bade farewell on Thursday night, thanking the network, producers, writers, family and fans.“I’ve devoted all of my adult life — all of it — to pursuing this strange phantom intersection between smart and stupid. And there’s a lot of people who believe the two cannot coexist, but god, I will tell you, it is something that I believe religiously. I think when smart and stupid come together, it’s very difficult, but if you can make it happen, I think it’s the most beautiful thing in the world,” O’Brien said.He ended on an optimistic note ahead of his move to HBO Max.“So my advice to people watching out there right now — it’s not easy to do. It’s not easy to do. It’s not easy to do, but try — try and do what you love with people you love. And if you can manage that, it’s the definition of heaven on earth. I swear to God, it really is,” O’Brien said.Homer Simpson made a special appearance to conduct the exit interview, harking back to O’Brien’s first job, writing for “The Simpsons.”On his show, Jimmy Kimmel congratulated O’Brien on his run, joking, “Anyway, here’s to Conan and Andy Richter, and congratulations to Jay Leno on his new time slot at TBS.”The Punchiest Punchlines (America’s Mayor Edition)“Speaking of New York, the state just suspended Rudy Giuliani from practicing law because of his repeated false and misleading statements about the election. Even Rudy was like, ‘What the hell took you so long?’” — JIMMY FALLON“Former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani has been banned from practicing law in the state of New York. ‘I object,’ said people at his wedding.” — SETH MEYERS“You know you’ve crossed the line when other lawyers are, like, ‘This guy lies way too much.’” — JIMMY FALLON“I mean, I’m just shocked to find out Rudy had a law license. I bet Rudy is, too: [imitating Giuliani] ‘I thought that was my Quiznos card — I’m one hole punch away from a free sub!’” — SETH MEYERS“This is a dramatic fall from grace. In the city he was famously the mayor of, Rudy Giuliani can no longer practice law. And if the last year has proven anything, it’s that when it comes to law, Rudy needs a lot of practice.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“How is he gonna eat? And, more likely, drink? Well, if he needs cash, he could always sell the fracking rights to his skull.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“It’s a mixed bag for Rudy. The bad news, he can’t practice law in New York; the good news, he can’t defend himself at his next trial.” — JIMMY FALLONThe Bits Worth WatchingThe “Black-ish” and “Grown-ish” star Yara Shahidi sat down with Desus and Mero to talk about growing up in front of the camera and encountering fans who don’t know her real name.Also, Check This OutElla Fitzgerald performing on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in 1965. Her performance with Duke Ellington is one of hundreds now available on the show’s official YouTube channel.CBS, via YouTube“The Ed Sullivan Show” went off the air 50 years ago, but some of its best episodes can be found on YouTube. More

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      Artist David Choe on His New FX and Hulu Show

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      An hour into our interview, the artist David Choe admits that he lied about something.He said he had turned down two offers to do a television show many years ago, one from the producer Scott Rudin, the other from the celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain. He had said the same thing during his first burst of media attention nearly 10 years ago; and he said it again during a Zoom call last week from his home in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles. More

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      Late Night Reams Republicans for Blocking the For the People Act

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      “The Republicans instead supported the ‘For Some of the People — We Can’t Say It Out Loud, but You Know Which Ones We Mean — Act,’” Stephen Colbert said of the voting rights bill.Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night’s highlights that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.Who’s the Fairest of Them AllRepublicans blocked a far-reaching voting rights bill, known as the For the People Act, in the Senate on Tuesday.“The Republicans instead supported the ‘For Some of the People — We Can’t Say It Out Loud, but You Know Which Ones We Mean — Act,’” Stephen Colbert said on Wednesday night.“The Senate voted yesterday to block the For the People voting rights bill, but not until they got their voting paperwork in order. Let’s see, I got my license, passport, tax returns, high school yearbook. OK, I think I’m ready for my riddle.” — SETH MEYERS“Senate Republicans haven’t been this happy since Kenny G started touring again.” — JIMMY FALLON“Yep, Democrats wanted things like automatic voter registration and Election Day to be a national holiday, while Republicans wanted every polling place to be at a yacht club.” — JIMMY FALLON“Republican Senator Mike Lee said in an interview yesterday with Fox News host Sean Hannity that the For the People voting rights act was, quote, ‘written in hell by the devil himself,’ which is also what it says on the poster for ‘F9.’” — SETH MEYERS“Yes, the Senate’s founding purpose: to do nothing. It’s right there in Article I: ‘All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate, where one wizened, ancient turtle man, with no regard for anything but the self-preservation of his own power, shall, with his pockets stuffed with greasy bags full of money, strangle the hope of all who dare to dream of true democracy, and recognize April as National Jazz Month.’”— STEPHEN COLBERT, on Senator Mitch McConnell’s saying the Senate was fulfilling its “founding purpose”The Punchiest Punchlines (Dad, You’re Embarrassing Me Edition)“Speaking of the former president, his daughter and son-in-law don’t want to, because reports say that Ivanka and Jared Kushner have distanced themselves from the former president and his constant complaints. That complaint? [imitating Trump] ‘Why does he get to date my daughter? Doesn’t seem fair. We’re both family.’” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Trump has become so distant from Ivanka that he started to call her ‘Eric.’” — JIMMY KIMMEL“When he heard that one of his kids wanted distance, Trump was like, ‘Please be Eric, please be Eric!’” — JIMMY FALLON“Apparently the feeling is somewhat mutual, because insiders say there is jealousy from the former president about Kushner’s ‘seven-figure book deal.’ Early reports are that Jared’s book is going to be a lot like Jared: glossy and no spine.” — STEPHEN COLBERTThe Bits Worth WatchingOn Wednesday’s “Late Show,” the actress Christine Baranski joined Colbert in singing “Side by Side by Side” from Stephen Sondheim’s “Company.”What We’re Excited About on Thursday NightJack Black will be the final guest on Conan O’Brien’s TBS talk show.Also, Check This OutEd McMahon seemed to define the job when he worked with Johnny Carson on “The Tonight Show.”NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal, via Getty ImagesFrom Ed McMahon to Andy Richter, late-night shows have a long history of sidekicks. More

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      Drake Bell Pleads Guilty to Attempted Child Endangerment

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      Mr. Bell, a former star of the Nickelodeon series “Drake & Josh,” faces up to two years in prison.Jared Drake Bell, a former star of the Nickelodeon series “Drake & Josh,” faces up to two years in prison after pleading guilty on Wednesday to two charges against him relating to a girl who met him online and attended one of his concerts in Cleveland in 2017.Mr. Bell, 34, who was charged earlier this month with attempted child endangerment, a felony, and disseminating material harmful to children, a misdemeanor, agreed to a plea deal at a virtual court hearing on Wednesday. He had initially pleaded not guilty to both charges.Mr. Bell’s lawyer, Ian N. Friedman, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.The sentencing range is probation to two years in prison. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for July 12.According to prosecutors, the charges stem from an incident at a concert in Cleveland on Dec. 1, 2017. Mr. Bell, who is also known as Drake Campana, had posted a tweet saying that he had a show scheduled at the Odeon Concert Club there on that date.Prosecutors said that Mr. Bell engaged in a conversation with a 15-year-old girl that was at times sexual in nature. An investigation by the Cleveland Police Department also revealed that Mr. Bell had sent the girl inappropriate social media messages in the months before the show, the prosecutors said.The judge told Mr. Bell that if he did serve time in prison, his activities could be restricted for up to three years after his release.“Drake & Josh,” a young adult sitcom, aired for four seasons on Nickelodeon from 2004 to 2007. Mr. Bell played one half of a pair of stepbrothers (the other was played by Josh Peck) who lived together despite having opposite personalities.In the years since, Mr. Bell has started a music career and toured in support of several albums. More

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      Does the Job of Talk-Show Sidekick Even Make Sense Anymore?

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      Andy Richter reinvigorated the thankless, tired role, but now that “Conan” is going off the air, it’s time to re-evaluate work that was often mired in stereotypes.Several years ago, Conan O’Brien’s talk show did a bit about Andy Richter’s forgetting how to do his sidekick job after a summer break. A woman from human resources has to remind him, “You need to make the host believe in the irrational fantasy that he is the funniest person in the world.” She instructs him, “Laugh first, think later.” More

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      Jimmy Kimmel: Trump Can’t Take a Joke

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      The former president denied reports that he tried to use his office to keep late-night shows from poking fun at him. “Not only that, he wanted Guillermo to pay for the wall,” Kimmel said on Tuesday.Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night’s highlights that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now. More

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      A Complicated Collaboration for a New ‘Enemy of the People’

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      Without seeing a script, Ann Dowd jumped at the chance to work with Robert Icke on his solo adaptation of the Ibsen classic. Then the debates began.You are an established stage and screen actress, an Emmy winner with pivotal roles in two of the most critically acclaimed series of the past decade. One day, a young theatermaker rings with an offer you should refuse: a drastic remix of the Henrik Ibsen play “An Enemy of the People” as a solo show in which you would play all the parts. Oh, and he hasn’t written it yet.Ann Dowd (the cult leader Patti Levin in “The Leftovers” and the brutal enforcer Aunt Lydia in “The Handmaid’s Tale”) did not hesitate. “I knew on that first call that I would trust him completely,” she said.That bond was evident during a recent chat with Dowd, 65, and her new collaborator, the British writer and director Robert Icke, 34, at the Park Avenue Armory, which commissioned and is presenting their show from June 22 through Aug. 8. Sitting on an overstuffed maroon couch upstairs at the Armory, the pair batted around ideas, arguing affectionately but spiritedly, and dryly teasing each other.In the original play, Dr. Thomas Stockmann discovers that the waters feeding his town’s popular spa baths are contaminated. For the sake of public health, he wants to disclose his findings and close the baths; this pits him against his own brother, Peter, who happens to be the mayor and fears a fatal blow to the local economy.Icke (pronounced Ike) kept that mainframe, which feels prescient in the light of debates surrounding Covid-19, then changed … a lot. For starters, Thomas is now Professor Joan Stockman, the town has become Weston Springs and there are references to pizza delivery and TV. More importantly, the audience gets to influence the outcome by voting at key points of the story.“Rob rewrites classics to bring them closer to us,” said Pierre Audi, the Armory’s artistic director. “Not by trivializing them, but by going straight to the complexity of why they are great plays. He’s categorical about being able to understand why a play needs to be done, why it’s a story we want to tell now.”Icke’s only other New York credit, “1984,” received mixed reviews when it ran on Broadway in 2017 but in his native Britain he is celebrated for daring, bracing productions that strip the rust and barnacles off familiar material. Dowd — whose stage career includes a 2008 Broadway production of “The Seagull” opposite Kristin Scott Thomas and Peter Sarsgaard — is not shy about disagreeing about some of Icke’s aesthetic choices. But these differences appear to fuel their artistic collaboration, not hamper it. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.What was your starting point when you decided to rethink Ibsen’s play?ROBERT ICKE All I really had was the notion that it was interesting but maybe there was a different route through the story that might make a social-distanced environment feel natural rather than pragmatic. And it relied on me finding somebody I felt 100 percent confident I could write for.ANN DOWD Were you sure it would be a woman?ICKE Yes.DOWD How come?ICKE Good question. I don’t know. There’s just something about this show with a man that is completely uninteresting to me.Dowd in rehearsal with her director Robert Icke. They are fond collaborators — except when it comes to their respective takes on Chekhov.Krista Schlueter for The New York TimesAnn, how did the project reach you?DOWD My very wonderful agent and manager said, “You have an offer to do a one-person show based on ‘Enemy of the People’ with Rob Icke” — Robert Icke, I think they said. Block your ears — can’t compliment him, I mean, truly, don’t even try. I could tell from the sound of their voice that it was an extraordinary honor to be asked. I didn’t know Rob’s work — I don’t really know anything about a lot of things [stage whisper] you can just cut that part — but at any rate they educated me. Part of me was thinking, “Give me a reason to say no, please, let me avoid this walk up Everest.” I say “walk” because there’ll be no climbing. Then we spoke and I thought, “Who would ever turn this man down?”ICKE Oh, it’s happened.Were you familiar with his work?DOWD My sister is a casting director in London and said, “Rob Icke? Oh, my God, I saw his ‘Vanya,’ I was riveted and when it was finished it had been four hours.” [Actually, about three and a half.] I said, “Wait a minute — whaaaat?” She was just so in the story.ICKE Chekhov said he wants that play to feel like real life so sometimes it was just like, “I just want to watch you all live for a minute, so you just tune your guitar and you maybe look at your phone for a second and then you put it back.”DOWD Well, that irritates me: What is a phone doing in “Vanya”?ICKE We do differ about this. What is our experience of being in the country in the modern age? [He pretends to hold a cellphone up in the air.] “Have I got any bars?” So there’s that idea that wherever they are, there’s no phone signal, just a rusty landline somewhere in the house.DOWD My pushback was: “No, no, it’s called imagination.” Having played Sonya [in a 1986 production] and loving her — lo-ving her — I said, “I’ll trick you: I want to be in ‘Vanya’ and I’m going to play Sonya.” But he said he would never cast me in a role I’ve played before.ICKE But there would be something interesting in asking where Sonya is when she’s your age. Like, what happened?DOWD Yeah, write that play! But let me wear the damn clothes that I wore in Russia and don’t change my name. And don’t take out a cellphone!ICKE Unfortunately if you’re doing Chekhov with me, you’re wearing contemporary clothes. There will be no samovar, there will be no parasols.How did you approach the central character of Joan? She has become a distinct person, not just Thomas Stockmann in a dress. And she can be aggressively intransigent, bordering on zealotry.ICKE It’s both simple and incredibly complicated: the genius of this lady [pointing to Dowd] is that the characters are like real people. I came in one day with a rewrite of a section. She looked at me with a genuine hurt and said, “I just don’t think that’s fair on Joan.” Joan was now a real person who existed inside the actor.DOWD If you track her early years, I think she was probably shut down quite a bit: “Lower your voice, let your older brother” — mother taking you aside — “Joan, he’s the shy one, don’t bully him.” So just learning: “I’m not going to be listened to so might as well just yell it out. And [expletive] every one of you!” I imagine one or two women have experienced that in their lives.The play now introduces an interactive element with the audience votes: The majority’s decision has an impact on what happens in the town and in the play, and it might not be to everybody’s liking.ICKE I think the same thing is true of Trump because he was democratically elected: He won a fair and free election. Whether any of us like that or not, there’s a horrible dichotomy to wrestle with.DOWD How does that excuse —ICKE It doesn’t excuse anything. But that’s the big bind: the process that put him there is the process we all claim to like and the one we signed up to. The British equivalent of that is Brexit.Audience members at this “Enemy” will be asked to respond to plot points by voting from their seats.Krista Schlueter for The New York TimesDOWD If Peter [the mayor] had said, “Look, we are going to have to close down the baths, we’re going to figure it out together. We will find a way to get help. You are not alone.” Real leadership.ICKE Isn’t real leadership to just get it done quietly: shut the baths, give a vague reason?DOWD No, people deserve to know the truth about their lives.ICKE But does it help us? Sometimes I wonder whether we’d all be happier if we knew a bit less. I sometimes think we’re all so flooded with information, it’s more than we can take in.DOWD This is slightly off topic, sorry, but you think about the people who knew what Trump knew [about Covid-19] and stayed quiet. What is that? Your job is more important than your integrity?Ann, how do you burrow into the heads of these tough characters? Of course Aunt Lydia comes to mind.DOWD I was a pre-med student for four years and the way you get through it is that you study to the point of insanity. Then I realized, You know what? Let’s go to acting school! But I applied those same rigorous studies to acting for a very long time. That’s misery because you’re not letting anything in around you. All the doors shut, except for the one you choose to go through.The other thing, and this is big: It’s playing. People ask, “How do you ever play Lydia?” I can’t get to her fast enough. It’s make believe — not to diminish the intensity — but if it wasn’t, emotionally, you’d go home, put a pillow over your head and end it all! Just chill a little bit: It’s a play, there is supposed to be fun in it.Have you reached the fun stage on this one yet?ICKE We had fun on Sunday, when you did all of it.DOWD I was in a state of shock!ICKE I’ve got the WhatsApps to prove it.DOWD [resigned] OK. The point is, that’s the goal. I’ll get there.Enemy of the PeoplePerformances June 22-Aug. 8; armoryonpark.org More