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Two years ago, while filming the teen slasher movie I Know What You Did Last Summer, he was being chased by a mysterious madman with a hook for a hand.
Last summer in Toronto, he was dancing the days and nights away in various states of undress and making out with dozens of people.
Phillippe was recreating a summer of debauchery, not actually living one.
In 54, a nostalgic look at the infamous New York disco Studio 54, Phillippe plays Shane O'Shea, a young bisexual waiter who becomes one of the hottest stars of the Big Apple's seedy nightlife.
"There were days that I'd look at the costumes all the guys who were playing the waiters had to wear and I was wondering if we were making Showguys," jokes Phillippe.
"But that's what Studio 54 was all about. The late 1970s in New York was a time of pure hedonism. There were a lot of people who were experimenting with sex. They were going both ways.
"My character was exploring and he was very susceptible to persuasion and flattery.
"The great thing about this time period was that no one was judging anyone else."
Shane O'Shea is a fictitious character, but Steve Rubell, who is played by Mike Myers, is not. It was Rubell who created Studio 54 and a craze that swept New York until his empire collapsed in scandal.
Phillippe is no stranger to playing sexually ambivalent characters.
At 17, he played daytime television's first gay teenager in One Life to Live. In Greg Araki's Nowhere he played a bisexual and in Little Boy Blue he played a terrified teenager trapped in an incestuous relationship.
Phillippe has no problems playing sexual predators or their prey.
"I don't choose these roles to make a statement," he says. "They were always the best of the roles I was being offered at the time.
"My sexuality is an area where I do have confidence. Playing a gay or bisexual is just another role," says Phillippe, who is straight and lives with actress Reese (Twilight) Witherspoon.
Phillippe was born in New Castle, Delaware. His father is a chemist and his mother runs a day-care centre.
"I never thought of becoming an actor until someone suggested to my mother that I probably had a chance to make money doing commercials.
"I liked the idea because, as a teenager, I wasn't particularly fond of myself. I loved the idea of becoming other people for a while."
It proved more difficult than Phillippe imagined because the agency he applied to insisted he take speech lessons to soften his accent.
After months of classes, Phillippe moved to New York. It took seven months of pounding the pavement before he got his role on One Life to Live.
"I was 17 when I moved to New York," he says. "I went out to clubs. It wasn't my scene. It was never satisfying for me.
"If I'd lived in 1979, I probably would have gone to Studio 54, but I'd have been an observer, not a participant."
Phillippe finds it ironic that he spends so much of 54 preening and strutting like a Chippendales dancer.
"Shane is a guy who really likes what he sees in the mirror. This couldn't be further from who I am. He is obsessed with his body. I'm not.
"That was one reason I didn't know if I could pull off the role. The movie has to exploit the actors who play the waiters because that's what it was like at Studio 54.
"Rubell wanted to make these waiters the centre of desire. We had to run around all day for the cameras as if we were Greek gods.
"I knew it wasn't me. It was the character I was playing. You just have to learn to let your inhibitions go.
"This sort of (exploitation) is done to women in the movies all the time, so why shouldn't it be done to men as well?"
Phillippe says he does empathize with his 54 character when it comes to celebrity.
"You learn quickly that celebrity is seductive and with celebrity comes a certain amount of intrusion into your life.
"I don't want anyone messing with my private life and my happiness. I don't mind people scrutinizing my professional life, but I'd like to draw the line. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be possible.
"I'm in a really great, committed relationship and I want to see it continue."
Success and celebrity destroyed Phillippe's alter ego Shane O'Shea.
He's determined not to let the same thing happen in real life.