Ryan Phillippe talks Delaware; new ABC drama

It's three days before Christmas at Ryan Phillippe's Los Angeles-area home.

It would be easy for the Delaware-born movie star to blame last-minute holiday shopping for being a few minutes late for a phone interview.

But, as a single dad sharing custody of his two children – Ava, 15, and Deacon, 11 – with ex-wife Reese Witherspoon, the reason is even more domestic.

"Honestly, the reason I was delinquent for this call is that I was folding laundry," says Phillippe, before asking Deacon to finish folding some towels while he does an interview.

It's understandable. Phillippe, who turned 40 in September, is busy these days.

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He's not only promoting the first film he directed, co-wrote, co-produced and stars in – "Catch Hell," available now via on demand video services – but he stars in a new ABC drama coming March 1 called "Secrets and Lies."

Much like some of TVs hottest (and best) new shows – "Fargo," "True Detective," "American Horror Story" – "Secrets and Lies" is an anthology with Phillippe signed on for only the first season. His co-star, Juliette Lewis, will remain with the show if there is a second season.

But it's in "Catch Hell" where Phillippe die-hards might have the most fun. He plays, well, a version of himself in the film, shot over 19 days with a shoestring $2 million budget.

Phillippe is Reagan Pearce, an actor who is kidnapped on location after having sex with a woman who turns out to be married to one of his sadistic kidnappers. To be clear, Phillippe says the germ of the idea is based on a true story that happened to one of his acting buddies – not himself.

But there's a lot of him in this film since he was at the helm for the first time. He calls it a "reality/movie hybrid" with hints of "Misery" and "Deliverance" mixed in.

In one scene, Phillippe is wearing a Rehoboth Beach T-shirt, as a nod to his home state where his family still lives. (That's actually not new for Phillippe, who wore a black Wilmington T-shirt from Wilmington's Spaceboy Clothing while hosting "Saturday Night Live" five years ago.)

Phillippe says he still loves Delaware. He rented a house in Bethany Beach last summer for a week with his kids and is even looking into buying a beach home in Delaware, which would be a good meeting spot for all of his family in the state.

"My kids love Delaware. There's some kind of peace that comes over them when they are there," Phillippe says. "It's simpler in a way. Los Angeles is so chaotic and they deal with a lot of weirdness being children of celebrities with their photos in magazines and all that stuff.

"But when we are back home and they are with their cousins, it's comforting. I can tell."

In another scene in "Catch Hell," he's wearing a black Philadelphia Phillies cap – the same hat he wears in real life, as documented by the nearly daily stream of paparazzi photos of him that end up online and in magazines, held over from his power couple marriage with Witherspoon.

While Phillippe isn't washed up like his character, the way actors deal with their personal lives and the ups and downs of the business brought him a few unwanted headlines last month when Witherspoon was on "60 Minutes" and said this about her career after her divorce from Phillippe: "You know, you can't really be very creative when you feel like your brain is scrambled eggs."

The segment, which Phillippe says he watched, spawned overblown headlines like "Reese Witherspoon Says Divorce From Ryan Phillippe Caused Career Slump" in The Huffington Post and US Weekly's "Reese Witherspoon Blames Ryan Phillippe Divorce Trauma For Career Blunders, Slump."

Even though Phillippe didn't have many high-profile roles in the the past five years –– "MacGruber," "The Lincoln Lawyer," a stint on "Damages" are his biggest – he's not one to get caught up in a day-by-day ranking of how his career is going.

After all, he has made plenty of daring choices in his 30-plus films over the past 20 years since leaving his schooling as a teen at the old New Castle Baptist Academy.

After high-profile, box office-winning teen films like "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and "Cruel Intentions" turned him into a heartthrob, Phillippe chose a more artistic path for most of the following years with films like "Crash," "Igby Goes Down," "Gosford Park" and "Flags of Our Fathers."

It's that indie streak within the New Castle native that protects him from getting swept up in the sometimes rollercoaster-like ride of an actor's career.

"That's one of the only good things about getting older: I don't have those same fears. I also didn't build a career that was so reliant on commercial success. I chose not to go down that road only because the material wasn't of interest to me," he says. "So I'm going to survive, man. When people say, 'Where has he been?' I can say, 'Well, I've written three scripts in the last year, I produced a documentary, I directed a movie I starred in, I did a 10-episode series and I have an Internet start-up that's going to launch this winter.'

"But I'm not that showy. So for me to feel productive or successful, it doesn't have to be obvious to my fan base. Isn't that clear if you've been following my career? I think I'm about something else and I find satisfaction elsewhere. I want to continue to challenge myself."

The timing of the release of "Catch Hell," which has an opening song by New York pop band Freelance Whales, fronted by Wilmington Friends School graduate Judah Dadone, coincided with the large-scale celebrity hacking case. That used stolen nude photos and videos showing everyone from Academy Award-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence to Wilmington native and "Parks and Recreation" star Aubrey Plaza.

In "Catch Hell," the kidnappers post private photos from Pearce's phone onto his hacked social media sites as part of a plot to destroy him.

But Phillippe himself isn't too worried about being a target. He hasn't changed his habits much in terms of what he texts, e-mails or takes photos of.

"And after what we've seen with the Sony hacking and the nature of some of the material uncovered, I don't have anything like that. There's no secret racist thing to be uncovered," he says. "Also, we're getting to a strange point in society where there is almost no shame ... In some regards, everything is out there in a lot of ways and as long as you're a decent person – I don't think I have too much to fear."

-- Ryan Cormier, The News Journal. Facebook: @ryancormier. Twitter: @ryancormier. Instagram: @ryancormier.

IF YOU WATCH

What: "Catch Hell," directed, co-written, co-produced by and starring Ryan Phillippe

When and where: Currently available through digital video-on-demand services like Comcast's On Demand.

IF YOU WATCH

What: "Secrets and Lies" co-starring Ryan Phillippe and Juliette Lewis

When: March 1, 9 p.m.

Where: ABC