His second feature film was Baby It's You which starred Rosanna Arquette. "It was my first film role, and all my friends went out and saw it. And than they called it MAYBE It's You because they cut out all my parts!" But it didn't take long for audiences to see more of Robert in films like Firstborn, Tuff Turf, Weird Science and the movie that really put a spotlight on his comedic ability, Back to School with Rodney Dangerfield. As the blue-haired punk Derek Lutz, he organized anti-pep rallies and staged other wild antics. He was so funny in the role that he was later chosen to be a regular for a season on TV's Saturday Night Live.

Then he was picked for The Pick-Up Artist, a film he describes as "a romantic-comedy type of thing." He played a modern-day Casanova opposite the queen of teen flicks, Molly Ringwald, and held his own admirably. Currently, he has two movies in release and one role is weirder than the next. "I'm always looking to play different types, But lately, it's been manic," he says.

This is obvious in his role as Julian in Less Than Zero, a film about fast-lane L.A. He portrays the best friend of the film's hero Clay (Andrew McCarthy) who finds himself so deep in a cocaine that he rents himself out as a male prostitute and at the time is sleeping with Clay’s girlfriend (Jami Gertz). “I took the part because this kind of guy hasn’t really been done before on film – a potential artist who slips really low," explains Robert. "There's a lot of humor in the film, but overall it's pretty grim. It's most disturbing."

He also stars in the up-coming star-studded comedy Rented Lips. He plays a porn star called Wolf Dangler, a young, good-looking hunk who, despite the fact that he has never worked outside of X-rated films, still considers himself to be a "serious" actor, always on the search for a "sincere" motivation. "He's by far the sickest character I've ever played. He's into wigs and slipping into and out of accents," says Robert.

Despite a spate of zany roles, Robert is quite the serious actor. He's devoted to his craft and hopes to continue with it. In his private life, he dates and occasionally goes out with his ex live-in girlfriend Sarah Jessica Parker whom he met on the set of Firstborn. "She's smart and well spoken and funny," says Robert of former squeeze. Though they see others, they still date each other from time to time.

The handsome actor with the penetrating black eyes has a pierced ear with Yin-Yang symbols dangling from it (they're the symbols of opposites like good and bad, black and white, etc.) and he himself is quite the opposite of what he appears to be. You'd think with his success and sensuous good looks he'd be as much a ladies' man as he was in The Pick-Up Artist. But he claims, "I had to learn how to pick up women. I know it's in me, but I could never just walk up to a girl and do it."

He spends much of his free time with fellow actor Anthony Michael Hall watching wrestling on TV. He also discusses potential movie roles with his father. "My dad used to say, 'Why don't you go change the world? Go out and make a movie!'" recalls Robert with a boyish grin. And so he has, several times.