TAKING THE RIGHT ‘STEPS’ –

August 25, 2021 – After a few small parts in movies, Downey got what seemed like his big break in 1985. That year, “Saturday Night Live” producer Lorne Michaels assembled an entirely new cast for the show’s 11th season. Downey was one of several non-comedians selected for the cast, including Randy Quaid, Joan Cusack, and Anthony Michael Hall. It was a cast full of future stars, but the season did none of them any favors.

Downey has called his “Less Than Zero” character his “ghost of Christmas future,” predicting the worst of his drug addiction that was to come. Downey was already a regular drug user when filming began on “Zero,” but he told the Guardian that he had previously kept the drug use separate from his job by doing it “after work and on the weekends.” The production and subject matter of “Zero” escalated the drug use to the point that his then-manager demanded that he go to rehab in 1988.

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