Hollywood film star Ryan Phillippe said this week that playing a Christian missionary in his latest movie Prey reignited his quest for God.
Directed by South African filmmaker Mukunda Michael Dewil, Prey features Phillippe and Mena Suvari as a couple forced to leave their Christian missionary station in the Kalahari Desert after being threatened with death by an extremist militant gang akin to Boko Haram.
Their aircraft crashes in an animal preserve, meaning they must also battle wild beasts in order to survive.
“There is a slight theological thread through this, of questioning God,” Phillippe said of the film. “Wondering why things happen to certain people. They’re just good people trying to do a good thing in Africa in these villages and help others. Then something like this befalls them.”
“It makes them question. ‘What’s going on here? Is it worth being good? Who’s looking out for me?’ These aspects — Man’s search for meaning or search for God — really appealed to me,” he said.
Phillippe, who was raised in a Christian household, said that his faith is “incredibly” important to him and “grows even more, every day.”
File/Ryan Phillippe attends the 2023 Fanatics Super Bowl Party at Biltmore Hotel on February 11, 2023 in Phoenix, Arizona. (Jesse Grant/Getty Images)
The actor said he had been in a “darker place” while filming the movie, but “it was right after filming it where I went on this spiritual journey where I started going really deep inside.”
“I got back into reading the Bible and various other religious tomes, but I found myself drawn to this notion of spirituality,” said the star of The Lincoln Lawyer. “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.”
“I wanted to have a relationship and understanding with God, and I was craving that,” he said.
Since I started that journey, I have been at peace, Phillippe said, adding that his former depression “is gone.”
“I shedded addictions so I’m a big proponent for people going inward and trying to understand those aspects of life,” he said.
The 49-year-old actor said he has “a firm and fervent belief in God and that things happen for a reason.”
I believe “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,” he stated.
“I spent a lot of time in prayer and studying things of that nature I find very fulfilling,” Phillippe said. “I feel like it’s the most important thing that you could spend your time thinking about or learning about or trying to understand.”
