Ryan Phillippe has reflected on his groundbreaking portrayal of gay teenager Billy in the soap opera One Life to Live, admitting that he and those close to him initially had reservations about the role.
Phillippe was just 17 when he starred as daytime TV’s first gay teen on the long-running drama, which aired from 1968 to 2013. He featured in 15 episodes, which premiered in 1992 and 1993.
Speaking to People about the “really profound experience” in a new interview, the Cruel Intentions star, now 50, revealed that because he was so young at the time, “there were elements of me that were afraid” to play a gay character, “because it was such a different time.”
He shared that those close to him had also advised him against playing Billy.
“I think there were some fears associated with the point in time that we were at and it being before so many walls and ceilings have been broken in that regard,” Phillippe explained. “But I know that any fears that anyone had about me doing it immediately went away once I saw the reaction that it got from the people who viewed it.”
He remembered receiving letters from fans who told him they’d “never seen someone represent me in any entertainment before in my life,” and from parents who said, “Watching this show on my lunch break gave me a way to connect with my LGBTQ child.”
“As that job progressed, I realized how important it was to some people,” Phillippe added. “And I was only 17 years old, so you don’t really have a sense of that. It was such a different time, but I very much matured through having had that experience and seeing the impact that it had for others.”
The I Know What You Did Last Summer actor currently features in Amazon Prime Video’s new drama Motorheads as Logan Maddox. The series, out now, follows a group of high school outsiders who form an unlikely bond over a mutual love of street racing.
Phillippe’s son Deacon, 21, whom he shares with his ex-wife, Reese Witherspoon, also appears in the show as the younger version of his character’s brother in flashbacks.
“When your kids go off to college, it’s really unsettling. It really leaves a deficit, a hole in your life in some ways,” he said, adding that “this experience offered me that opportunity again to live together for a week.”
Phillippe and Witherspoon were married from 1999 to 2008. They also share daughter Ava, 25.
