Ryan Phillippe Covers Men's Health

A shirtless Ryan Phillippe shows off his ab muscles on the cover of the May issue of Men’s Health. The 35-year-old actor talks with the fitness mag about being a dad, his divorce from Reese Witherspoon, and growing up. Here are the highlights of the interview:

On protecting his kids Ava and Deacon from the paparazzi: “If it’s something we have to live with, then we have to find ways to make it more healthy. I’ll turn it into a game: ‘Let’s go ask the guy at the shop if we can sneak out the back,’ or ‘Let’s go down the stairwell.’ ”

On moving forward from his divorce from Reese Witherspoon: “I still have sadness and complicated feelings about my divorce. But how beneficial is it to keep hanging onto those feelings? If someone lives through an accident, his aim is to become better and healthy. My aim is always to progress — to make better decisions and be a better father, a better boyfriend, a better husband if it happens again, a better friend, a better actor. My goals are to improve in all areas of life.”

On staying open to possibilities: “If you’re fearful and you’re closing yourself off from potentially wonderful or beautiful additions to your life, that’s not going to lead anywhere positive. And there’s a maturation that takes place once you have children and have to put food on the table. You don’t cling to those ideals of your youth so much, because that can trap you on a hard road.”

On getting older: “I thought the most experience you had, the more certain you would be about life. But I’m finding the opposite, man. I’m more in wonder and confusion than I was in my 20s.”