Ryan Phillippe: I'm Ready to Quit Acting

Mel Gibson isn't the only actor who says he could easily give up acting. Actor Ryan Phillippe, currently in New York at the Tribeca Film Festival to promote his new movie The Bang Bang Club, tells The New York Post, "I think I'm going to end my acting career. I'm so introverted. I'm ready to be behind the scenes. I'm 36, but I've been doing this for 20 years."

Phillippe got his start on the recently canceled soap One Life to Live when he was just a teenager, and he has been working steadily ever since. His high-profile marriage as a young man to Reese Witherspoon resulted in two kids, Ava, 11, and Deacon, 7. While it seemed like the couple had it all -- marriage, kids, hot careers -- rumors of infidelity began to emerge, and they split in 2006 after seven years of marriage. Witherspoon recently married talent agent Jim Toth, taking the two kids on their honeymoon.

Phillippe has had a rocky road romantically, with his pregnant ex-girlfriend Alexis Knapp speaking out about how she will raise the baby on her own, and a new relationship with Amanda Seyfried. He has also been linked this year to Rihanna. There has also been the very public breakup with Australian actress Abbie Cornish, who may have started her relationship with Phillippe before his marriage to Witherspoon ended.

It all adds up to tabloid fodder, and it is that kind of attention which Phillippe seems to find so wearying. "It's so hard to go out in L.A. I'm going to move," Phillippe -- who's already scouting out places to live in New York City -- tells the New York Post.

A friend of the actor, however, insists that we haven't seen the last of Phillippe on the big screen -- not by a long shot. "He's been talking about expanding his talents to producing and directing, but never give up acting," the friend tells US Weekly. "He's not retiring from acting anytime soon!"

Either way, one thing Phillippe does seem to want to leave behind is his reputation as a party boy and womanizer, insisting to the NY Post, "I'm a good guy. I'm not that guy you read about."

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/ryan-phillippe-im-ready-quit-acting/1-a-343531

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