He was hand-picked by actor
Mel Gibson to play Laertes in a theatre
staging of
William Shakespeare's "Hamlet". The play, which was to be presented at
Los Angeles' Coronet Theatre, was to star troubled actor
Robert Downey Jr. as the
young (troubled) Prince of Denmark, with Gibson set to direct,
Julia Roberts
set to play (Laertes' sister and Hamlet-thrall) Ophelia, and
Nigel Hawthorne
was in talks to play Claudius. It was all for nought, though, as
Downey's legal troubles surfaced again on November 26, 2000,
effectively cancelling the production mere days before the scheduled
start of rehearsals. (2001)