Ryan Phillippe

After being gutted like a flounder in “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” Ryan Phillippe just wanted some independents — namely “Homegrown,” a film about scheming marijuana farmers, and “Little Boy Blue,” a tale of incest. The 23-year-old told Entertainment Weekly magazine he now holds the dubious honor of costarring in two films that “both opened in the last two months and closed in two weeks.” Phillippe adds with a shrug: “They didn?t get a promotional push and were dark. That?s what can be frustrating about independents?. But it?s a place to experiment.”

Phillippe?s next movies will no doubt be more widely seen: He stars in a pair from Miramax — this August?s “54,” about the infamous nightclub, and “Dancing About Architecture,” with Sean Connery and Gillian Anderson, due out early next year. Still, he doesn?t regret his smaller efforts. “‘Little Boy Blue’ is not an ‘Independence Day’ or ‘Godzilla,'” he says. “Thank God.”