Ryan Phillippe On Daughter Ava: I Passed My Depression To Her

Not only did Ryan Phillippe reveal he suffers from depression, but the actor -- who is known for his tormented character portrayals on the silver screen -- said he passed his mental illness to the daughter he shares with ex-wife Reese Witherspoon. Ava is 15 and also struggles with depression, he said during an Elle.com interview about his role in the ABC miniseries “Secrets and Lies.”

“It can ruin your f------- life,” he said, adding he wishes he could “un-feel” those feelings, but he'd "prefer to suffer through the sadness than to be a complete moron with no feelings.”

“You know, depression has been a huge obstacle for me ever since I was a child,” the “Cruel Intentions” star said. “As you get older, I think it decreases some, but I'm just innately kind of a sad person. I'm empathetic, and I take on the feelings of others and transpose myself into the position of others. I see it in my daughter [Ava]. She has it, and I wish to hell she didn't. It's just, some people do have this pervading sort of sadness, or they're so analytical that they can kind of take the fun out of things because they think too much.”

Though Philippe might struggle with darkness, there is plenty of light in his life. In fact, he loves to laugh. “I’m way funnier than people know me to be,” he said during the interview. “And it's a dark humor, like a gallows humor. I think that's where, if you do carry any of that sadness or depression, your humor does tend to be a little darker than most people.”

Phillippe’s new series will premiere Monday, March 2 at 10 p.m. on ABC. He plays a family man who finds the body of a young boy while jogging. The series follows him as he tries to solve the murder.

Follow me on Twitter @mariamzzarella