PREY Star Ryan Phillippe Shares How His Role Drew Him Closer to God
By Movieguide® Contributor
Actor Ryan Phillippe opened up with Fox News Digital about how his recent role as a missionary in PREY brought him closer to God.
“In the new action thriller PREY, the 49-year-old actor played a Christian missionary who has a crisis of faith when he finds himself in mortal danger,” Fox News Digital said. “Phillippe, who was raised in a religious household, shared that his own faith is ‘incredibly’ important to him.”
“And it grows even more, every day,” Phillippe said. “I have a firm and fervent belief in God and that things happen for a reason and that we should put positive energies out into the world and treat people with respect and spread as much love and light as we can to offset the darkness that we see around us everywhere.”
The actor prioritizes his prayer time and spiritual studies. And his role in PREY helped him grow his relationship with God.
“I feel like it’s the most important thing that you could spend your time thinking about or learning about, or trying to understand,” he said. “So it’s become a very, very important part of my life.”
He told Comic Book Movie that the “spiritual quest” he had already embarked on lined up with the movie’s timing.
“It’s interesting because I was kind of in a darker place when we filmed this, and it was right after filming it where I went on this spiritual journey where I started going really deep inside,” he recalled.
“I got back into reading the Bible and various other religious tomes, but I found myself drawn to this notion of spirituality,” Phillippe continued. “You get to a point in life, a certain age, and the things that you thought would bring you pleasure or make you feel satisfied – these would be success or money – and it doesn’t. It doesn’t.”
So he looked for “more”—a relationship with God.
“And I’m so thankful for what I’ve been given and for the experiences that I’ve had and for my children, and everything else. But I wanted to have a relationship and understanding with God, and I was craving that.”
“And I’ve got to tell you, since I started that journey, I have not been more at peace. My depression is gone,” Phillippe added. “I shedded addictions so I’m a big proponent for people going inward and trying to understand those aspects of life.”
Phillippe resonated with his character’s struggles. At one point, his character gives up when he doesn’t have any more strength.
“I think a lot of us find ourselves at places in our lives where we question those things, or we challenge those things,” Phillippe added. “And that resonated with me.”
On Instagram, the actor shared PREY behind-the-scenes footage of a scorpion slowly crawling over his face. He said:
“This is quite a long low def video of a live scorpion crawling all over my face and neck, in my nose & ear etc, BUT, to me it’s worth watching to the end for @emilehirsch ‘s cute lil freaked out face??.
I’m trying to hold still, play passed out, and my man is off camera making all kinds of terrified sounds, distracting [me]?? PREY IS OUT IN 2 DAYS, EVERYWHERE
(actors, or at least the one writing this, are kinda crazy..)”
Movieguide® has yet to review PREY and cannot advise on its content.
Movieguide® reported how actor Neal McDonough’s recent villain role in THE SHIFT also brought him closer to God like Phillippe’s role did:
“…You have to be careful because [the devil] is out there every day to take anything he can away from all of us if we don’t start to believe wholeheartedly that God loves us so much,” he continued. [However], the temptations can be greater the closer you get to God, and seeing films like this makes you realize that that’s what you’re supposed to do.”
“You’re supposed to get close to God and stay away from those temptations and I’m just blessed to be part of something like this,” he added.
“It’s films like THE SHIFT that make us realize that we shouldn’t take any of it for granted. It’s so fleeting. We’re here for such a short amount of time. Make your life remarkable. Be the greatest version of you possible,” he told the Christian Post.
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