Deacon Phillippe on His Feature Film Acting Debut and Parents Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe: ‘I Acknowledge That I’m Extremely Lucky’

Deacon Phillippe insists he wasn’t going to rely on his Hollywood genes — his parents are Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe — to make it in Hollywood. So much so that the 24-year-old aspiring musician and actor was intent on getting a college education and graduated from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in May.

“That was a really big thing, and I think I’m really glad I was pushed to make sure I got that done,” he tells me over Zoom from his apartment in New York City. “I’m beyond grateful for my education, and I think It’s provided so many things.” Like music for his new movie “Brother Save Us.”

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“I went to school partly for recorded music at the Clive Davis Institute, and we ended up recording the end credits song that I wrote with two of my friends from college at school because we had these state-of-the-art studios,” Phillippe says.

The indie sci-fi thriller marks Phillippe’s feature film acting debut after appearing in two episodes of “Never Have I Ever” in 2022 and playing the younger brother of his dad’s character in flashback scenes in the Prime Video series “Motorheads.” “I acknowledge that I’m extremely lucky, but you know, at the same time, I hold myself to a standard,” Phillippe says. “I’m not really looking to prove anything to anyone but myself to try to be the best version I can be, the best person I can be and work as hard as I can. A lot of people are going to assume things … All I can do is do my thing, and show that I want to work extremely, extremely hard.”

In “Brother Save Us,” from first-time writer and director Jesse Behrenwald, Phillippe plays a farmer in a dystopian America who is trying to save his family farm and protect his younger brother (Thomas Murphy Molony) from a conglomerate replacing the human workforce with AI bots. “I just remember feeling surprised that someone could write exactly how I feel about my little brother,” Phillippe says, referring to Tennessee Toth, the son Witherspoon shares with her ex-husband Jim Toth. “That depth of love in a script is just something you rarely get to see.”

“Brother Save Us” will have its world premiere at the Nashville Film Festival on Sept. 26.

Next up, Phillippe follows in his mother’s rom-com footsteps with a role in “Better Than the Movies,” Julie Hart’s Netflix adaptation of Lynn Painter’s novel about a high schooler obsessed with romantic comedies. “It’s a rom-com that pays homage to many rom-coms, and I really appreciate the era of ’90s rom-coms,” Phillippe says. “I don’t want say too much about the project, but working with Julia Hart and [cowriter] Jordan Horowitz has already been the most incredible, fun, smooth and beautiful process.”

I ask Phillippe to name his favorite rom-com starring his mom. “I would say, ‘Sweet Home Alabama,’” he says, before quickly adding, “It’s very weird to watch your parents act. It’s hard. I remember when I was a kid, I watched one of my dad’s first movies, ‘White Squall,’ and I was crying because they were bullying him in the movie.”

He continues, “But as you get older, there’s something magical about watching your parents young and at your age. I’m always in awe of their careers and all that they’ve done. That’s why I’m always leaning on them for advice, which is another thing I’m blessed to have.”

Phillippe is currently working on a script with his best friend. “It involves music. It involves true stories from our lives,” he teases. “I think that would be the next thing I’d love to do — or a ‘Real Steel’ remake.”

In the 2011 Shawn Levy-directed “Real Steel,” based on the 1956 sci-fi short story “Steel” about robot boxing, Hugh Jackman stars as a former champion boxer who reenters the sport by training a robot to become a promising fighter.

“I love ‘Real Steel,’” Phillippe says. “I think bringing the nostalgia back from that IP would be really fun.”

You can watch an exclusive first look at “Brother Save Us” below.