Christian Slater has a reputation for not liking cars. That’s not because he doesn’t enjoy driving them. He does. But they always seem to end up the worse for wear after the Hollywood actor has been behind the wheel. Dented, smashed or totalled is usually the result. So it was with more than a little trepidation that Jaguar let him test drive a new £59,000 XK for a week while he is on stage in the West End in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Miraculously it survived unscathed.

“It’s one hell of a machine,” he said afterwards. “I felt like James Bond. It got a lot of eye attention. And it moves, too. I made it from London to Wiltshire for a weekend away in about 45 minutes. To be honest, though, I was pretty surprised to be given the opportunity to drive this Jag, given my driving history.”

One of the original teen brat packers alongside River Phoenix, Johnny Depp and Matt Dillon, Slater’s early career was marked by fame and notoriety in equal measure. There were tales of alcohol-fuelled excesses, car chases, assault arrests and drug abuse.

He had barely passed his test before he had his first crash in his mother’s Mercedes in Los Angeles. “I had borrowed it and was going through the lights when I was hit by another car coming the other way,” he says. “It was quite nasty, actually. Fortunately I was not in the wrong in that situation.”

The most notorious incident came in December 1989. Slater had hit the big time with the film Heathers, a darkly comic story of high school angst, and was driving his Saab 900 Turbo down Santa Monica Boulevard doing 50mph in a 35mph zone. When the police tried to pull him over a high-speed chase through West Hollywood ensued, ending only when Slater crashed into a telegraph pole. He leapt out of the wreck and tried to escape over a fence but was hauled back and arrested. He was sentenced to 10 days in jail, fined and had his licence suspended for 18 months.

“My driving habits have calmed down a bit since then,” he says. “It was just an adventurous moment in the life of a teenager.”

The Saab was one of many cars that Slater has gone through. “I have had a lot of fun cars through the years. Porsches, a (Pontiac) 67 GTO, a 65 Cadillac, some trucks . . . I have had a ridiculous amount of cars and I’m ashamed of that now, really — it seems a little wasteful.”

His first car was an old Subaru bought for him by his mother when they moved from New York to Los Angeles. “As a kid I loved that car. I remember thinking that it looked like a rocket ship, but I think the first really fast car I got when I started making it was a Porsche Carrera 4.

“The problem with that is you get those cars and they are very exciting but there is a certain level of paranoia that comes with driving that sort of vehicle. You almost feel a little bit embarrassed driving them, especially when you are so young.”

Today Slater, 36, emphasises that his time of excess is behind him. He has given up smoking (though not the nicotine gum) and modified his drinking habits. The death of his friend River Phoenix, whom he was often mistaken for and who died in 1993 after taking a cocktail of drugs, provided a wake-up call. He has also retreated from Hollywood, the scene of his wilder extremes, to concentrate on theatre work.

His fast car habit has been harder to kick. In his garage in Los Angeles is a new Ford Mustang GT. “I always wanted a real muscle car,” he says, “and it feels like a muscle car when you turn it on and you feel the engine. It feels very much like Bullitt and Steve McQueen.

“Those sort of cars, they are part of the culture, part of the movies. Also, it doesn’t look too expensive and too fancy but it still has a great engine. It’s black with a hood scoop and you can hear it coming down the street — it really is a bad-ass car.”

The only problem is getting his two children in the back. “I have to squeeze them in, but they enjoy going fast.”

There are signs, however, that Slater’s new responsible side is affecting his car choice too. He is considering joining the growing number of celebrities who own the fuel-efficient Toyota Prius hybrid. “I think Priuses are great. I am on the list when I get back to LA. It’s the considerate thing to do,” he says, adding with a smile that he accepts that there is a certain amount of hypocrisy about stars that make a play of driving a Prius while keeping a fleet of guzzlers in their garage. “It’s all about balance.”

Despite his love of all-American cars Slater says he has yet to take on America’s most famous highway — Route 66. “The one road trip I have done was from Minnesota to Los Angeles with my girlfriend of the time. I bought a Cadillac in Minnesota and it was the most beautiful time, but I have never done Route 66. That is something that I have always wanted to do. I have a real romantic notion of it.”

Whether the former fast-living star will do it in a Prius or a Mustang remains to be seen.

On his CD changer

I have been listening to Radio 2 a lot — as well as Coldplay and Sting