Scandalous! Ryan Phillippe revealed he was anxious about how his dad and mom would react after seeing him in Cruel Intentions.
The Huge Sky actor, 46, recalled in the course of the Tuesday, November 17, episode of Barstool Sports “KFC Radio” podcast what it was like working on the 1999 film during which he portrayed manipulative Sebastian Valmont. Within the film, his character bets his stepsister, Kathryn Merteuil (Sarah Michelle Gellar), that he can “deflower” the brand new headmaster’s daughter, Annette Hargrove (Reese Witherspoon), earlier than college begins.
Phillippe knew that premise wouldn’t sit nicely along with his spiritual household.
Ryan Phillippe attends a particular screening of ‘Want Upon’ in New York on July 10, 2017. Patrick Lewis/Starpix/Shutterstock
“I assumed my dad and mom had been going to disown me,” he defined, noting that he was 23 years previous once they shot the film. He remembered already being on the outs along with his dad and mom after enjoying a homosexual teen Billy Douglas on One Life to Dwell from 1992 to 1993.
“I had grown up going to, like, Baptist college and Christian college,” Phillippe stated. “Once I was a senior in highschool, I performed the primary homosexual character on a cleaning soap opera — first homosexual teenager ever — and so I used to be shunned at that time. I imply this was 1992, and I used to be enjoying a homosexual teenager and I used to be in a Christian college. They weren’t glad about it.”
The Shooter alum first learn the script for Cruel Intentions 4 years later whereas on the set of I Know What You Did Last Summer. The producer on each movies requested Phillippe to try the position of Sebastian however warned him that it was “risqué” and will flip heads.
Ryan Phillippe, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Selma Blair and Reese Witherspoon in ‘Merciless Intentions’ in 1999. Bob Body/Columbia/Kobal/Shutterstock
“I bear in mind strolling out the trailer and discovering him. I’m like, ‘Are you guys actually going to make this?’ And he stated, ‘Yeah.’ And I used to be you recognize — I’ve nonetheless by no means performed a personality like that since,” he recalled. “I need to get again to enjoying a personality like Sebastian in Merciless Intentions. It was simply so enjoyable to be so flippant and kind of like, you recognize, the feelings are theatrical.”
Regardless of the controversial storyline, Merciless Intentions has continued to attract in viewers greater than 20 years after it hit theaters.
“It’s cool that it holds up, man, you recognize, lots of occasions to take a film from a particular cut-off date that’s supposed to attach with a youthful crowd and it simply stays. This film in some way finds new followers on a regular basis,” Phillippe defined. “, they had been going to do a collection about Merciless Intentions, a TV collection a yr or so in the past. There’s, like, a musical on the market that’s actually good truly, they put it again in theaters for its twentieth anniversary — that solely occurs [to], like, The Godfather.”
The R-rated movie helped launch each Phillippe and his ex-wife Witherspoon’s careers. The Delaware native and the Draper James founder, 44, additionally received engaged whereas they had been engaged on the film.
The pair wed three months after the film premiered in 1999 however split after eight years of marriage in 2007. The Morning Show star and the Crash actor share two youngsters Ava, 21, and Deacon, 17.
The Stroll the Line actress married Jim Toth in 2011 they usually share 8-year-old son Tennessee.
Phillippe, for his half, shares daughter 9-year-old daughter Kai with ex-girlfriend Alexis Knapp.