Robert, who has been acting since he was five and has appeared in a string of movies (including Air America with Mel Gibson, Chances Are with Cybil Shepherd and True Believer with James Woods) is about to play a man many believe is the greatest genius the movies have ever seen. He has been choosen for the title role in Richard Attenborough's 35 million dollar production of Chaplin.

Twenty-six-year-old Robert, whom many in Hollywood believe to be the best actor of his generation, will play Charlie Chaplin from the age of 18 to 80, in a production that will explore the extraordinary life of the English vaudeville artist who became the most famous actor in the world. Robert, an intense, rubber-faced man who throws of quips constantly, ("Doctor, I think I've got a brain tumour" - "Don't worry, it's all in your head!") is perfecting The Little Tramp's walk and giggle, and is studying everything about Charlie Chaplin he can lay his hands on.

"Ultimately," he says, over gulps of black coffee in a Beverly Hills hotel, "there is no way I will ever be able to approach the expertise he had with things. He was completely God-gifted, and he had the experience of 20 years of burlesque and 50 years of film-making. But there's a lot of stuff in this movie about him as a man - his relations with the successions of great beauties who passed though his life, and with his children. And the political stuff that led to his exile from America in the '50s for being a left-winger. That sort of thing makes up most of the movie, and I'm just immersing myself in the material. I wonder how English people will feel about me playing Chaplin. Being an American, I have a feeling a lot of people will want to nail me for it. But I do have the advantage of being short. And as for the American aspect, he did come here early, and spent the major portion of his career here."

Robert will be drawing on his personal philosophy, derived from Jung and from a body of spiritual writings known as "the Seth material." He believes we create our own reality: what's going on is what we think is going on.

"I think success comes from having positive beliefs about yourself. Like, there was a time when I was auditioning for a lot of things and never getting anything. And I developed this belief structure; I'd go along, fail, and say, see, that's how it is. Then something changed inside me, maybe while I was sleeping, I don't know. But it was something. And it wasn't finally getting a job. I believe there has to be this internal shift before there are external results. I believe everything starts in here (tapping his head) and then we react to it out there, and then we say, yeah - that's it! That's the reality. And the more we create it, the more we react to it!" He grins. "It must be working for me. My girlfriend saw some stills from one of my screen tests, and thought it was really Charlie Chaplin. I figure if I can fool her, the audience will be a snack."

Robert, who says he wants to be remembered as "the 21st-century Charlie Chaplin," holds in almost religious awe the man he is going to portray. "Playing him is going to be a great challenge," he says. "However it comes out, it's a great honour."