Ryan Phillippe played the first gay teenager on television in his first acting role on the soap opera One Life To Live in 1992. He talked to Ellen Degeneres today and told her in an interview that he got discovered as a teen in a barber shop by a casting agent who asked him if he wanted to get into modeling. He did some modeling work and commercials before landing his role on the show.
Ryan Phillippe on “One Life To Live in the early 90s
Ellen asked Ryan if his people advised him against taking the controversial role and he said “you know, I had no people… no one stopped me.”
Ellen said that was a good thing because he probably made a difference in a lot of people’s lives.
On gay teens telling him he saved them from suicide
Ryan said “I wasn’t really aware at the time, I was 17 years old myself, but I remember getting fan mail and since it was my first big job – that’s exciting, getting fan mail… Some of them were pretty moving. There was one or two who said ‘you know, I was contemplating suicide and I saw a representation of who I was on television for the first time… and it made me feel good about myself…’ those things were pretty moving.”
On his kids
Ellen: “What do you do with them? Where do you hang out?”
“You can check the pages of most magazines and find out unfortunately. I take them snowboarding, we go to the beach, I’m teaching them how to skateboard, my daughter just learned to ride a bike. That kind of fun, fatherly stuff. We’ll watch Nancy Drew or Hannah Montana or something. All suitable stuff for a 33 year old guy.”
Ryan then talked about his film Stop Loss, which is out in US theaters this Friday. He said we need to stop the practice of the backdoor draft in which soldiers are called back to service after their tours of duty are completed, which is what Stop Loss refers to.
I’ve seen a lot of celebrity interviews and rarely are the celebrities as candid and quotable as Ryan Phillippe. This guy has really grown on me over the past couple of weeks when he’s been doing press for this film. He comes off as down to earth, open and matter of fact, but guarded enough to keep some things private, like his relationship with Abbie Cornish.
Ryan has been slightly struggling with his career and hasn’t reached the level of success of his Oscar-winning ex wife, but I see a lot of good roles in his future after this. He seems like a real stand up guy and a solid actor. Plus he’s a dreamboat, who am I kidding?
Here’s the video of Ryan on Ellen, thanks to clipper lindsey on Redlasso.
Ellen also showed this photo from Ryan’s high school year book.
Oh for fuck’s sake!!!!
You wanna stop the so called “back door draft”?? Then enlist, dammit!! If we had more people serving, not only would they have to stop keeping people in but there wouldn’t be dudes on their third, fourth, and fifth tours.
Yes headache, everyone who is opposed to the practices of the military should just enlist. That will show them.
That issues aside…
I’m glad to see that people are looking at Ryan as an actor & a dad rather than the man that allegedly cheated on America’s Sweetheart & broke up a perfect marriage
Damn, typing that sentence gave me makor de ja vu 😉
CB, you miss my point.
I come from a long line of military service. The fact of it is the military has policies in place to deal with shortcomings in budget and manpower and that’s true of any military whether in a time of a war fully supported or half hearted support the troops but not the cause such as this.
This movie plays into every uneducated fear about the way soldiers are treated which although not that great, isn’t as dire as all this. The movie over dramatizes the practice of stop loss, makes it seem mush more unfair and sprung on a soldier than it is and makes it seem like it’s a common practice that everyone encounters.
The reality is, soldiers are fully aware not just that they can be stop lossed but when they are facing the likihood of one. Many take the option of pre-empting the stop loss by reenlisting and getting a bonus for staying in longer. And they certainly don’t spring a stop loss on you within weeks of returning and then turn you right around and send you back.
The movie is crap and I’m pissed off that there are so many taking it at face value.
Ryan Philippe is an interesting one – he seems to do the Johnny Depp/ Tom Cruise thing and go for the more interesting films. Johnny Depp was always beloved amongst his fans (possibly the only hollywood type adored by straight men), but it’s his collaboration with Tim Burton and latterly Pirates that have ensured his big-name status.
I think he just needs one big hit to make him a decent-sized player.
Not to say Reese is bad – against my better judgement, I really liked Legally Blonde and thought she was excellent in Walk the Line – but there are an awful lot of RomComs in her CV.
What Headache says about the premise for the film just hammers it home that we should never look to films as a fully accurate representation of political or historical issues. Difficult to avoid though.
Its gotten some good reviews & I’ll probably get it from the local Redbox when it come out
Headache, here’s an idea… to prevent back-door draft, let’s not go to war! Let’s solve domestic issues before solving overseas issues! Tell that to your long line of military service!
And… am I the only one who fines Ryan Phillipe somewhat insufferable? Wimpy? Irritating?
Have you seen the film headache?
“All suitable stuff for a 33 year old guy.”
Ummm….shouldn’t he be worrying about what’s suitable for his KIDS? Or is it really just all about him?
I think he was joking, tvf.
Especially since he is talking about Hannah Montana & Nancy Drew.
And I have to add that any dad who’ll read Nancy Drew to his daughter is a-ok in my book!
Was he in that film Shattered Glass? I can’t recall. I sort of dig Ryan, he is hot in a boyish sort of way. There’s something about him that puts off a certain immaturity though, even if he’s 33, he still looks like he’s a 5 year old with a bad case of the cute.
Like headache said, and I mentioned before, the movie is B.S. Most of us who had our tours extended (in my case from 5 to 8 years) knew months before, and chose instead to reenlist.
If that’s the case, you not only nab another signing bonus, but generally have the option of changing MOS (your job) to something behind the lines. I worked the front lines in intelligence from 2002 (Afghanistan) to 2006 (Iraq the second time), when I was wounded and cycled home.
Yeah, it was just awful to be handed a check for 10 grand and to have to stay stateside teaching AIT. The whole basis of the movie is that a combat vet is forced to go back and fight, but combat vets are always in high demand for training positions (because before the last 2 wars, the last real vets we had were in action more than 20 years ago).
That being said, at least Ryan doesn’t seem like he’s pushing a huge political agenda. Can’t fault the guy for collecting a paycheck.
Exactly, Scott – we are focusing on the subject matter of the movie, when we really should be talking about how gorgeous he is.
oh I’m definately not blaming Ryan. I just wish people would stop taking some movie premise as gospel truth. Lord knows they are rarely accurate.
Funny how not one of you has commented on the headline – ryan saves gay teen from suicide. You dont like the movie, dont watch it. You dont like the policy, step away from the computer, get your behind up and do something about it!
I’m just falling in love with him! I love how he said “one or two” people wrote that he saved their life. He’s humble and not trying to create some fake story or play up his importance/heroism.
Not one thing rubbed me the wrong way about what he said. Oh–and he was definitely kidding about the activities being for 33 year olds, but of course someone had to try and make him sound like a jerk. TVF, is that you Reese?
Ryan, like most Americans and citizens of the planet, doesn’t like war. Although, Headache and his family seem to enjoy the killing fields of the Bush administration’s misadventure, stop loss is a fraudulent game of smoke and mirrors. Far too many innocent human beings have lost their lives in the interest of corporate America and the military industrial complex. The young Headache should review history and listen to the warnings of our last great Republican president….Dwight D. Eisenhower.