Ryan Phillippe is still on promotional duties for MacGruber, the film based on a Saturday Night Live sketch. While the film got surprisingly good-to-mediocre reviews, it’s only made $7.6 million in two weeks. So… it was a big bust. It must be embarrassing to still be promoting this thing, but Ryan obliges, and he’s got a new interview in The Advocate. The full piece is here, and the highlights (below) include Ryan talking about homophobia, gay jokes, and being forever young:

On being 35 years old, and what he does to look young:
It really blows my mind that I have a 10-year-old daughter, because a lot of times I still feel like a child myself. People always ask if I’ve made a deal with the devil, but no, not to my knowledge. I’m health-conscious in a lot of ways, but I do drink and have fun. I guess exercise is a huge part of it, and I do a lot of saunas and steams.

You frequently appear shirtless in your films. Do you ever feel sexually objectified?
Maybe earlier in my career, like when I did 54 and felt like I was naked the whole time. But I’m at the stage in my career where I have more control. If it doesn’t make sense to me, now I won’t do something that I would’ve just gone along with before.

Your shower scene in I Know What You Did Last Summer was also pretty gratuitous.
Completely, yeah, but I see that for what it is now. You have to get comfortable with it and realize that sexuality and finding actors attractive are a big part of the entertainment industry.

Those films in the ’90s certainly earned you a big gay following.
And thank God for that. I’m very aware and appreciative. Because I started my career playing a gay teenager on One Life to Live when I was very young, I’ve always had a heightened sensitivity to that response, and I’m definitely considerate of that audience.

While promoting Stop-Loss in 2008, you discussed your One Life to Live role on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Those were two very different interviews, huh?
[Laughs] Yes, they were. One was very sensitive and one was not. That was such a strange, incredibly awkward moment with Jay. I didn’t understand what a “gayest look” was or why he would ask a guest to do that, so I was more shocked than anything. I just thought about the gay friends I have and how potentially offensive that whole direction would be to them. I don’t feel there was any malice behind it, though, and I know Jay regrets it.

Since its premiere at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, I’ve read reports that MacGruber is rife with gay jokes.
There aren’t that many gay jokes. I took my best gay friend with me to the screening and he loved it. The funny thing about MacGruber is that he’s a deplorable human being—he’s sexist, a little homophobic, a bit racist, and a bumbling idiot—but somehow, and it’s a testament to how good of an actor Will Forte is, you still like him. The only source of any gay joke comes from what an asshole MacGruber is. When you see the WWE wrestler Big Show kiss another dude, it’s pretty awesome.

You were a major contender for the lead in The First Avenger: Captain America, but the part ultimately went to Chris Evans. Are you bummed?
It’s something I would’ve loved to do, especially for my 6-year-old son, who would’ve thought it was the coolest thing in the world. The child within me really loved the idea of it too. There are very few things I’d get that excited about, but as an actor you have to move on. At some point I’d love to do something action-oriented like that because I’ve been in martial arts since I was eight.

You’ll be wearing spandex tights in no time.
I hope so, man. Before I get too old.

[From The Advocate]

Funny how he makes jokes about how he could be “too old” for things, because many reports have him acting like a crazy kid in the wake of his split from Abbie Cornish. Just this week, In Touch Weekly describes his “recent hard partying”. Allegedly, he had one too many Grey Goose cocktails at a New York party, and according to a source, “Ryan was in full force, rapping at the top of his lungs.” The next night saw him getting drunk and making out with a random blonde, and another bystander said, “He looked totally wasted.” So mature!