Christian Slater caused some damage to his dad, according to a new lawsuit. 
 
 The "Heathers" and "Mr. Robot" star was named in a $20 million defamation lawsuit filed Wednesday in Los Angeles by his father Thomas Knight Slater. 
 
 The elder Slater, known by his stage name Michael Hawkins, claims in his filing that his ex-wife and famous son destroyed his acting career with public claims he suffers from manic-depressive schizophrenia. 
 
 He said the duo "intentionally maligned and defamed him, and caused him to be blacklisted in the show business community." 
 
 Michael Hawkins in a scene from "Ryan's Hope." He's now suing his son and ex-wife, claiming they destroyed his acting career. (ABC Photo Archives/ABC Photo Archives/Getty Images) 
 
 Hawkins, 80, was born in New York and originated the role of Frank Ryan on the ABC soap opera "Ryan's Hope" in 1976. 
 
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 His last film appearance was a small part in "Midnight Run" in 1988, when he acted under the name Michael Gainsborough. 
 
 Christian Slater has been accused of destroying his dad's acting career by claiming the elder Slater suffered from mental illness. (Noam Galai/WireImage) 
 
 "Neither of the defendants has a medical credential, or the ability to diagnose manic-depressive schizophrenia, and even if that were the case, they would be bound not to disclose it to the general public," Hawkins wrote in the complaint that he personally prepared and signed without a lawyer. 
 
 "With this latest pummeling of his character he believes that any hope of ever acting again has been dashed into pieces," he wrote. 
 
 Attempts to reach a rep for the younger Slater were not immediately successful Wednesday. 
 
 Christian Slater and mother Mary Jo Slater in 1991. (Ron Galella, Ltd./WireImage) 
 
 Hawkins says he's suffered humiliation, invasion of privacy, emotional distress, business interference and the "destabilizing of his well-being." 
 
 He is suing for $20 million in compensatory damages and punitive damages to be decided by a jury. ||||| Christian Slater is facing a $20 million lawsuit filed by his father who claims his son "ruined" his career by alleging that he suffered from mental health issues. 
 
 In legal documents obtained by ET, Thomas Knight Slater -- who goes by the name Michael Hawkins -- cited an interview where Slater "described his father as suffering from manic-depressive schizophrenia." 
 
 The lawsuit, filed on Wednesday, cites a December 2015 issue of the National Enquirer as the source of Slater's comments. It appears the Enquirer article sourced an interview from earlier that year, when the Mr. Robot star had a candid sit-down with Interview magazine and opened up about his father's mental health, as well as their late-in-life reconciliation. 
 
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 "My father was an actor and my mother was his agent, so I had it on both sides, the crazy actor and his representation," Slater said in the July interview, recounting his exposure to the film industry at an early age. 
 
 Slater went on to say that his hadn't seen his father "in a few years," explaining, "He's a manic-depressive schizophrenic. He's always had trouble—he was a fantastic actor and extraordinarily charismatic and very, very good looking, but he had a really difficult time working with directors, collaborating with people. And that made his life very challenging." 
 
 According to the suit filed by Hawkins, those comments "ruined his career in the stage, motion picture, and television industry, which he has never recovered from." 
 
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 The suit also accused Hawkins' ex-wife, Mary Jo Slater, of slander and defamation of character, alleging that she got him "blacklisted in the show business community," and that "any hope of ever acting again has been dashed into pieces." 
 
 Hawkins appeared in a number of soap operas in the '70s, including As the World Turns and Ryan's Hope, as well as feature films. 
 
 The suit argues that Slater and his mother do not have "medical credential or the ability to diagnose manic-depressive schizophrenia, and even if that were the case, they would be bound not to disclose it to the general public." 
 
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 Hawkins is seeking damages of "not less than" $20 million, and has requested a jury trial for the suit. 
 
 In a heartbreaking twist, Slater's discussion with Interview magazine also included the revelation that the actor had recently started to reconcile with his father after almost a decade of estrangement. 
 
 "In the last few months my father actually reached out to me and wanted to reconcile and reconnect," he shared at the time. "I was very grateful to be able to communicate with him. From a tumultuous, back-and-forth relationship, we were able to begin to build a better bridge for the both of us." 
 
 WATCH: From Cult Classic to Musical: Behind the Scenes of the Singing 'Heathers' ||||| VON TRIER: Come on. That’s really sick. How could he treat you that way? 
 
 SLATER: How could he take me to the theater? 
 
 VON TRIER: Yeah. To take you to the most dangerous place in the world. 
 
 SLATER: [laughs] Theater was definitely part of my roots. My father would take me to plays, and then my mother was always on the lookout for other talent and taking me to see plays. I saw Frank Langella in Dracula … Great, great performances. I was a theater rat, hanging out backstage. I remember seeing Yul Brynner in The King and I, watching him do his death scene night after night after night. There were a lot of experiences like that. And then I started to get jobs. My mother became a casting director and she cast me in a soap opera called One Life to Live. I was, like, 8 years old, playing a kid who had hurt himself on a skateboard. I had, like, three lines. I did the lines and everybody in the studio applauded—I was immediately hooked after that. I was like, “This is the life for me.” 
 
 VON TRIER: I was in a Danish show when I was 12. It was fun because I was doing a lot of 8mm films. So we were kind of doing the same thing. There is something about that, that sweet spot. 
 
 SLATER: We are kindred spirits. I was 9 years old, so I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. But my mother brought in somebody to help me, and I started to just get a sense of what it was to be a performer, and I just started to really love it and embrace it and cherish it. I loved going to the theater every night and being a part of it. That was a nine-month tour [for a traveling production of The Music Man], so I had to leave home and travel around the United States. I basically had guardians for that entire length of time. So it was challenging, but the hardest part was when it came to an end, you know? You develop a family with everybody who’s been through this experience, and when it’s done, it’s over. I was 9, 10, and I didn’t really understand that these things come to an end. It was heartbreaking. 
 
 VON TRIER: Do you understand that now? 
 
 SLATER: I think I get it now. I mean, my life is certainly a lot more streamlined. I have a few friends, but it’s a small group. I basically rely on my wife’s family. 
 
 VON TRIER: But you must have friends and family in New York. 
 
 SLATER: You would think, but when I was about 16, we moved to Los Angeles and I was out there for 20, 25 years. I lost contact with a lot of people. I actually was on Facebook the other day to see if I could find a few of the people who I went to high school with. ||||| Corbis/Splash Christian Slater is being sued by his dad — just months after The National ENQUIRER exposed how the father of the '90s film star is living off of food bank handouts! Christian, in the midst of a comeback after winning a Golden Globe this year for his show "Mr. Robot," is accused of ruining the career of Thomas Knight Slater by saying that his dad suffered from "manic-depressive schizophrenia" during an interview in December 2015. 
 
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 Corbis The legal documents filed by actor Thomas Slater charges both Christian and his mother —casting director Mary Jo Slater — with defamation of character, invasion of privacy, slander, libel, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The lawsuit requests a jury trial while seeking damages of at least $20 million! 
 
 Corbis The ENQUIRER revealed last year how Christian — who once spent $10,000 in one night at a strip club — had kicked his father to the curb. Photographers caught his 80-year-old pop, who once starred in soap operas under the name of Michael Hawkins, scrounging for free meals at a Hollywood food bank on the day after Thanksgiving. “At this point, Christian’s dad is virtually destitute and relying upon the kindness of others,” revealed a source. 
 
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 “My son, Christian, has disowned me! He wants nothing to do with me!” said Michael to The ENQUIRER — and also claimed that he’s been blacklisted in Hollywood by Mary Jo. “She poisoned the entire show business community against me,” Michael insisted. “And now she’s poisoned my son against me, as well!” 
 
 Splash News The article noted that Christian had said in a recent interview that his father "always had trouble" and was a "manic-depressive schizophrenic." Christian had also once said he didn’t speak to his father for nine years because the star was “in the middle of the relationship” between his parents “and needed to get out of that.” 
 
 Splash News Christian's father claims in the lawsuit that his son's statements "ruined his career in the stage, motion picture and televison industry." Michael's attorneys also say in the documents that Christian, 46, lacks "a medical credential or the ability to diagnose manic-depressive schizophrenia."
– Today in the Bizarre Lawsuits Dept.: Christian Slater's dad, Thomas Knight Slater (stage name: Michael Hawkins), is suing his ex-wife and his son for "intentionally malign[ing] and defam[ing] him," thus leading to the ruination of Hawkins' would-be acting career. Hawkins, now 80, was a soap opera actor in the 1970s and last appeared in Midnight Run in 1988 (his stage name then was Michael Gainsborough). He says his ex and Slater publicly claimed he has manic-depressive schizophrenia, and the result was that he was "blacklisted in the showbiz community," the New York Daily News reports. The National Enquirer gleefully reports that the lawsuit comes months after the tabloid revealed that Hawkins is "living off of food bank handouts." As TMZ notes, Hawkins' complaints stem from an interview Slater did last year. Per Page Six, Slater, who had just reconciled with his father after being estranged for nine years, said in the Interview article, "He’s a manic-depressive schizophrenic. He’s always had trouble—he was a fantastic actor and extraordinarily charismatic and very, very good looking, but he had a really difficult time working with directors, collaborating with people." Per Hawkins' $20 million defamation suit, which he prepared himself sans lawyer, "Neither of the defendants has a medical credential, or the ability to diagnose manic-depressive schizophrenia, and even if that were the case, they would be bound not to disclose it to the general public." He says he was humiliated and suffered emotional distress and the "destabilizing of his well-being" while having "any hope of ever acting again ... dashed into pieces." (More on the strange lawsuit here.)