Christian Slater's Latest Role: Education Ambassador

Christian Slater stars in Jerry Bruckheimer's TV show The Forgotten as a detective driven by the disappearance of his young daughter to create a team dedicated to searching for missing persons. The 40-year-old father-of-two - Jaden, 10, and Eliana, 8 - opened up to Parade about the frightening possibility of losing a child, and his latest role as education ambassador to help encourage our youth to stay in school.

On how his children inspired him to complete his high school diploma: "Certainly having kids is a phenomenal eye-opener. When I had kids, my whole idea on education started to shift just a little bit and I definitely wanted them to finish high school, but I hadn't finished high school. So I knew that if I tried to push them, I would lose the argument because they'd be like, 'Hey dad, you never finished.' So I went and sat in a classroom with a bunch of students and got my GED."

On encouraging youth to complete their education: "I'm involved with the Get Schooled project from the Bill and Melinda Gates Association. I'm helping raise the awareness of how many high-school dropouts there actually are a year, about a million students. It's a very, very scary statistic, and you know, it needs to be paid attention to. So, ironically, as a result of a decision I made 10 years ago, I've become an educational ambassador."

On keeping his own kids motivated to learn: "We lead, of course, hopefully, by example, and try to be the best examples we can be for them. I think it just helps all around. Lately, I've been reading the Nancy Drew books to my kids, and I just do what I can to encourage them to be little readers. We started going through three chapters of Nancy Drew every night, and they're so into it. It's about the idea of cliff-hangers in the stories, which is keeping them engaged. Their enthusiasm has really kind of got me very excited about it."

On facing the possibility of losing a child: "It's not a huge leap. I mean, God forbid that any of us would ever have to go through what this particular character is going through on The Forgotten. But, I certainly know that I can identify with loving your family and loving your kids and thinking they're the most important things in your life. Losing one of them is just not something you want to give a lot of thought to, but I do face it on the show."

On turning 40: "I'm 40. I just hit 40, so what more can I say? I mean, the fact that I'm 40 is a miracle. I'm on the other side now. I feel like I've hit a certain milestone and I'm going, 'Onwards and upward.' If I were looking back, I would say to myself during the tough times, 'If you can make it to 40, nothing in the past can prevent you from being present today.' There's a great author who said, 'We don't live life, life kind of lives us.'"