All the Best-Looking Men are in the hood

M o r e   R y a n

Quotes "There were times when Breckin [Meyer] and I would look at the pairs of tight, shiny shorts or jeans that made up or 54 wardrobe and wonder if we were making Showguys... But that's what Steve Rubell's thing was -- making these guys the center of desire." "Who's going to deny that at Studo 54 there were a lot of people going both ways? That happened. Why should I be afraid of evoking reality?" "Being in Hollywood has made me stronger as a person. I don't know if that's good because I don't know if it's that desirable to strengthen every belief I've got." "I think you grow and adapt according to adversity, and I personally feed into it. I feed into the drama of my own life sometimes." "I always liked the idea of exploring other personalities and trying to sponge from anyone I found remotely interesting, for whatever reason, negative or positive." From the article 'Beau de Jour' in Interview Magazine, 1998 Actor Ryan Phillippe started off in the winsome world of soaps, made his film debut in the cute-boys-in-their-boxers vehicle White Squall (1996), then showed up amid the equally comely cast of I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997). But no one knows better than he does that pretty faces can be had by the handful in his chosen profession. In fact, behind Phillippe's golden curls and delicate smile is a vulnerability that may stem in part from the understanding that nine-tenths of those lovely and acclaimed visages quickly and inevitably dissolve into the celestial atmosphere reserved for Hollywood's stunning but temporarily challenged young stars. Onscreen, Phillippe appears almost apologetic about his beauty, which translates to a shyness irresistable to the PG-13ers who see a gentle, unthreatening fantasy in his angelic face. In real life Phillippe's constant awareness of his good fortune has resulted in a kind of resolute strength and a disdain for (and determination to overcome) the pitfalls -- the greatest of which he regards as intellectual laziness -- inherent in his situation. And so, in the time most up-and-comers come and go, Phillippe has steadily, almost stubbornly, constructed a complex, self-fulfilling career. At seventeen he played daytime TV's first gay teenager in One Life To Live. In Little Boy Blue, a minuscule film guaranteed to be seen by not a single junior high school girl, he quietly explored a tortured world of incest and abuse. And in 54, written and directed by Mark Christopher, Phillippe is Shane O'Shea, a small-town boy dazzled by the big city lights built into the ceiling of Steve Rubell's iconic disco, Studio 54. O'Shea has nothing to offer but his dynamic physical charms, which turn out to be quite enough to build the shallow fame he seeks. It's a role Phillippe took on because, he points out, he likes a challenge.