Ryan Phillippe is a Proud Papa

Ryan Phillippe couldn’t be any more proud of his two kids, Ava, 8, and Deacon, 4. Check out what he recently told Entertainment Tonight:

On being good dad Ryan: “Being a father is by far my greatest achievement and the most important thing about me. My mother had a day-care center in my house growing up. And I come from a big family on the East Coast. We grew up helping take care of and raise kids, so it’s very second nature to me.”

On explaining the paparazzi to his kids: “You try to make it seem as commonplace as you can. That’s sort of the approach you have to take with all of that stuff, with the press, with the paparazzi. You kinda just say, ‘Well, you know, Mommy and Daddy do this certain kind of job and it creates an interest in the public,’ and you minimize all of that stuff as much as you can.”

On being nearly enlisted as a soldier, like in his new movie Stop-Loss: “Out of high school, I didn’t have a ton of options because my grades weren’t the best and I don’t come from money,” he says. “When I graduated, it was around the time of the first Gulf War and I did go and sit in a recruitment office and I ended up getting the T-shirt and everything. And the guy who went in with me ended up going over and serving in the first Gulf War, but I went to New York to be an actor instead.”

Ryan’s next movie Stop-Loss opens in theaters next Friday, March 28. The film also stars Abbie Cornish and Channing Tatum.

Watch the interview video of Ryan at ETOnline.com! 20+ screencaps of Ryan inside…