Ryan Phillippe Says Fans Still Talk About His Butt in I Know What You Did Last Summer

Ryan Phillippe is reminiscing on his character’s brutal death scene in I Know What You Did Last Summer — and the slightly R-rated scene that fans still ask about.

Speaking to Variety on the Monday, May 12, episode of the outlet’s Just for Variety podcast, Phillippe, 50, opened up about how fans’ love for the 1997 slasher film has endured over the years — and said that more than two decades later, he is still asked about the scene in the movie in which he shows his bare butt.

“I’ve heard about that for so many years now,” he said. “It could be worse.”

The Cruel Intentions star also spoke about sometimes wishing that his character in I Know What You Did Last Summer, Barry Cox, hadn’t met such a tragic end.

“I feel like I made the wrong move dying in all of these projects because then when they’re resurrected, I don’t get to be a part of them,” Phillippe added, reflecting on his characters’ deaths in Cruel Intentions and Big Sky, and noting he won’t appear in the upcoming I Know What You Did Last Summer reboot.

“I used to think it was cool,” he continued, opening up about dying on screen. “I’m like, ‘If I could take a character to their last moment.’ Now, I’m like, ‘What are you thinking? No, you want to live in case there’s more movies to be made.’ ”

Opening up about the reboot — which follows a new cast along with original stars Freddie Prinze Jr. and Jennifer Love Hewitt  — Phillippe joked that even though he likes to see how the original film’s popularity has lasted over the years, it still makes him “feel like a dinosaur.”

“It’s cool to see that those films, those projects have endured — that had the impact culturally that they did — that they would want to revisit them,” he said. “It definitely makes you feel like a dinosaur or aware of your age, but at the same time, it’s a compliment to something that you were a part of that succeeded.”

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A synopsis for the new film sets the stage for five friends inadvertently causing a deadly car accident, and covering it up by making a pact to take the secret to the grave. A year later, someone seeks revenge while making it clear they know what they did last summer. The newbies learn this happened before and consult two survivors — Hewitt and Prinze Jr. — of the Southport Massacre of 1997 for help.

The new ensemble consists of Chase Sui Wonders (The Studio), Madelyn Cline (Outer Banks), Sarah Pidgeon (The Wilds), Jonah Hauer-King (The Little Mermaid) and Tyriq Withers (Him).

I Know What You Did Last Summer will be released in theaters on July 18, 2025.