Ryan Phillippe Says He Worried His Parents Would 'Disown' Him for Starring in Cruel Intentions

Ryan Phillippe is reflecting on his iconic role in Cruel Intentions, which didn't go over well with his family at the time.

The Big Sky star, 46, said during a recent appearance on Barstool Sports' KFC Radio that his religious parents, Richard and Susan Phillippe, were unhappy with his part as the scandalous Sebastian Valmont in the 1999 cult classic.

"I thought my parents were going to disown me," said Phillippe, who was 23 at the time of the film.

The actor recalled that he was already on thin ice with his parents after playing gay teen Billy Douglas on One Life to Live from 1992 to 1993. "I'd grown up going to Baptist school, Christian school, and stuff," he explained. "My first role ever, though, coming out of the Christian school when I was a senior in high school, I played the first gay character on a soap opera, first gay teenager ever. I was shunned at that point, so they were already out of the picture."

"This was 1992, and I was playing a gay teenager and I was in a Christian school," he added. "They weren't happy about it."'

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Over two decades after Cruel Intentions was released, Phillippe said he wants to return to a role like Sebastian.

"I still never played a character like that since," he said. "I'm dabbling in comedies here and there, I'm doing a lot of comedy stuff. But I want to get back to playing a character like Sebastian in Cruel Intentions. It was just so fun to be so flippant and theatrical."

Phillippe said he feels that the film — which also stars Sarah Michelle Gellar, Reese Witherspoon, and Selma Blair — "holds up" today. "A lot of times you take a movie from a specific point in time that is supposed to connect to a younger crowd and it just stays," he said. "This movie somehow finds new fans all the time."

Just three months after Cruel Intentions premiered, Phillippe and Witherspoon, 44, tied the knot an intimate ceremony in Charleston, South Carolina, while the actress was six months pregnant with their daughter Ava, now 21. Four years later, they welcomed their son Deacon, now 17.

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The pair announced they were separating in 2006 in a joint statement.

Witherspoon has been married to Jim Toth since 2011. The couple shares son Tennessee, 8. Phillippe shares daughter Kai Knapp, 9, with ex Alexis Knapp.