Ryan Phillipe

JAMES LIPTON: Continuing our series on the actors and actresses of X-Project, we'd like to introduce tonight's guest, a young man who came to fame in a series of teen films such as "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and "Cruel Intentions" before moving on to independent films such as "Way of the Gun", and acclaimed films such as the Academy Award-nominated "Crash", "Flags of our Fathers", and "Stop-Loss". He has portrayed the role of Douglas Ramsey in X-Project since 2004, ladies and gentlemen, Mister Ryan Phillipe.

[Applause]

LIPTON: A pleasure to have you with us, Ryan.

RYAN PHILLIPE: Good to be here, thank you. Hello!

LIPTON: Four years on X-Project, it's been?

PHILLIPE: Has it really? Four years next week, yes. It's been wonderful.

LIPTON: X-Project wasn't your first foray into series work as an actor, though.

PHILLIPE: No, I'd actually appeared on "One Life To Live" when I was eighteen, before I moved to L.A. and found a good agent who got me into movies.

LIPTON: A career that you've kept up concurrently with your performance as Doug Ramsey.

PHILLIPE: Yes, and the producers have been great with that. When I was filming "Crash", I was taking red-eye flights to make my appearances for X-Project, it was still in the first year, but sometimes you get that character you don't want to miss an opportunity to play, you know?

LIPTON: As a character, Doug has had some of the most significant character growth in the series.

PHILLIPE: Really? Thank you.

LIPTON: Certainly his current role with X-Force is a far cry from the teenager we first saw in 2004. How have you dealt with that character progression?

PHILLIPE: Well, it was interesting when I first read for Doug. Here you had this kid coming to this school for mutants, and he refused to believe he even was one. And then here he is over his head with everything, just thrown right into the deep end. The writers gave me a lot of leeway with that.

LIPTON: Doug established some important bonds early on, didn't he?

PHILLIPE: Oh, right off the bat. He and Jamie (Madrox) hit it off instantly - Nick (Brendon) was already established on the show and we had a great chemistry with our scenes. And of course Anna (Paquin), Alicia (Witt), and of course, getting to work with Patrick Stewart.

LIPTON: Doug certainly had his moments concerning the young women on the show.

[Audience laughter]

PHILLIPE: [laughing] Yeah, that was kind of a running gag from the writers, I think. When they pitched the relationship with Marie-Ange, especially during the Asgard storyline, we weren't sure how well that would go over with the audience.

LIPTON: On a personal note, the dissolution of that character relationship was unfortunately timed with some of your own personal issues in that regard.

PHILLIPE: Well, they say that bringing your own emotions into your acting, it makes it real to - to act what you know. And going through my divorce, I know we had to reshoot a number of scenes where Alicia was an absolute saint for being so patient, but I think it came together well.

LIPTON: Your characters reunited once the X-Force spinoff came into being. How did that change your perspective?

PHILLIPE: It's no secret that I was in the middle of contract renegotiations when the writers pitched X-Force, and when they asked me to be in, I jumped at it. Getting to work with Callum (Keith Rennie) and Clive Owen, as well as taking Doug in a more serious direction, I enjoyed the challenge. Still do.

LIPTON: You even got the chance to reunite with your co-star from "Breach"...

PHILLIPE: Chris, yes! Chris Cooper, who plays Alexei Vashin. We actually haven't had a scene together, but when they brought him onto the set, we'd only just finished shooting "Breach", and they hadn't told me he'd be there. We did work with the same voice coach, though.

LIPTON: Which brings us to our next question - the accents.

PHILLIPE: [laughing] Every time they give me a new language to work with in the script, oh god, I spend five minutes just swearing in my trailer. We experimented early on, in the first few seasons, with overdubbing those scenes, but it never turned out well in post.

LIPTON: So you do your own voicework for the foreign language scenes?

PHILLIPE: I do. No dubbing, it's all me.

LIPTON: There were rumors that your character was being written off the show a few seasons back...

PHILLIPE: There were? Oh! "One To The Chest", yes. All the promotional material was done from the perspective that Doug wouldn't survive the shooting, and even all the actors involved in those scenes didn't get the full script. When we did the aftermath scenes, a lot of that emotion was genuine. Someone told Alicia that I was leaving the show, and she actually hit me in that scene! That made it onto camera!

[laughter]

LIPTON: And then she had a similar scene-

PHILLIPE: In the New Orleans arc, yes. We had a good laugh about that. Especially since her scene got the better effects team.

LIPTON: Over the past four years, what do you feel has challenged you the most about the character?

PHILLIPE: Finding a balance, I think. Between Doug's competence and that awkward teen he used to be. He's the "geek made good", really, but there's still the kid who wonders if he's in over his head.

LIPTON: What's been the most challenging change with the character?

PHILLIPE: Doug's a lot more physical now. When the writers found out I had a black belt in TKD (Tae Kwon Do), they set me up with our fight choreographer and we figured out how to subtly work that in.

LIPTON: Who have you enjoyed working with on set?

PHILLIPE: The writers have given Eric Balfour and I some great scenes together. And of course Nick, before he departed the show. Nick, if you're watching this, two words, buddy: Guest. Star.

LIPTON: Speaking of guest stars, there was a surprising one during the "Remix" special.

PHILLIPE: Abbie Cornish, yes. The tabloids had a field day with that one, but seeing her as the female Doug was great, even though we never were on set together.

LIPTON: You didn't want to do your own performance there?

PHILLIPE: After seeing Til Schweiger in the wig and falsies? [laughter] No, no, I was actually off shooting "Chaos" at that time, and didn't see any of it until it aired.

LIPTON: I can only imagine how that must have been. We're going to go to Monsieur Pivot's questions now.

PHILLIPE: All right, shoot.

LIPTON: Your favorite word.

PHILLIPE: Family. Especially my children, Ava and Deacon.

LIPTON: And your least favorite word?

PHILLIPE: Wait. I like to keep busy, keep myself moving.

LIPTON: What turns you on?

PHILLIPE: Strong, forthright women. A woman who knows what she wants.

LIPTON: And what turns you off?

PHILLIPE: Bickering. Little arguments. Everyone has them, but I can't stand them.

LIPTON: What sound or what noise do you love?

PHILLIPE: Hearing my kids' voices on the phone when I'm on the road travelling or shooting. If I'm not at home to tuck them in, I call them every night.

LIPTON: Most hated sound?

PHILLIPE: Oh god, there's a story here. When we were shooting "Fenrisulfr", Brock (Lesnar) and Qi (Shu) had this prop bucket of chicken, and between takes, they'd be seeing who could slurp down a piece of fried chicken the loudest. It got pretty gross.

[Audience laughter]

LIPTON: [laughs] Your favorite curse word.

PHILLIPE: They can edit this for overseas, right? Fils de putain, merde, salope, baiser du cul; any time they let me have Doug go off in French, it's great.

LIPTON: What profession other than your own would you like to try?

PHILLIPE: Baseball. I've always been a huge Phillies fan.

LIPTON: And what would you not like to do?

PHILLIPE: Fry cook.

LIPTON: If Heaven exists, what would you want to hear God say to you when you get there?

PHILLIPE: "You did good, you get to go back." Maybe as a swimsuit competition judge or something.

LIPTON: [laughs] Thank you, that's all the time we had this evening. Ryan Phillipe, ladies and gentlemen.

PHILLIPE: Thank you, this was fun.