7. He Buried All His Clothes From Less Than Zero In His Back Yard
Downey, Jr.'s Brat Pack days defined the early stages of his career, and it's largely down to the consequence-free top-of-the-world lifestyle the collective enjoyed that he found himself on such a self-destructive spiral during the 1980s. In amongst a smattering of other young, good looking and successful actors, Robert was the one with the most potential, and he translated this huge promise into little more than outlandish hedonism. But all that came to a stop during the filming of Chaplin - arguably the film that took him out of this debauched subculture and back into the world of serious acting. Wanting to set himself free from his former life, he took all the clothes he'd worn on his final Brat Pack outing, Less Than Zero, and buried them all in his own back yard. Symbolically cutting his ties. Speaking to GQ about the story some years later he recalls: "The next day I was, like: 'F*ck, why did I do that?' But four days later, I felt something drift away. The burial represents acknowledging how a lack of self-nurturing leads to gruesome results. It's one thing to see the train coming, and another to get out of the way". Unconventional logic, perhaps, but it worked.
WhatCulture's Managing Editor and Chief Reporter | Previously seen in Vice, Esquire, FourFourTwo, Sabotage Times, Loaded, The Set Pieces, and Mundial Magazine
