Ryan Phillippe Talks Depression And Passing It On To His Daughter
Published on March 2, 2015.Photo by Broadimage/REX
Actor Ryan Phillippe may be 40 years old, but he is looking just as good as when he was one of the hottest teen heart-throbs starring in I Know What You Did Last Summer and of course 1999’s Cruel Intentions where he met his now ex-wife Reese Witherspoon.
While he has continuously acted, the years following his hits of the late ’90’s just haven’t had the same success, but that isn’t stopping him as he is starring in the new series Secrets and Lies.
His personal life has also hit some obstacles since including his very public divorce from Witherspoon after seven years of marriage, all while he was locked in a life long battle with depression, he recently revealed.
When talking about his new character on the series, Phillippe told Elle magazine he felt connected to the role because he is “quietly tortured at times,” and expanded on that by opening up about his depression and seeing it in his 15-year old daughter Ava.
“You know, depression has been a huge obstacle for me ever since I was a child. As you get older it decreases some, but I’m just innately kind of a sad person. I’m empathetic, and I take on the feelings of others and transpose myself into the position of others. I see it in my daughter. She has it, and I wish to hell she didn’t. It’s just, some people do this pervading sort of sadness, or they’re so analytical that they can kind of take the fun out of things because they think too much.”
Phillippe also discussed how those intense feelings can “ruin your f–king life” but also makes you more adept to emotions and others, and it doesn’t mean he is always sad and serious.
“I’m way funnier than people know me to be. And it’s dark humor, like gallows humor. I think that’s where, if you do carry any of that sadness or depression, your humor does tend to be a little darker than most people. And the greatest comedians do- trust me. I know so many of them. And they’re depressed and they’re dark and they have this incredible gift of humor to offer others and also, probably, therapeutically themselves.
Phillippe’s new show is far from a comedy, however, as he plays a family man who is accused of the murder of a young boy after discovering his body. Phillippe’s character has to find the true killer to prove his innocence.
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