Deacon Phillippe, the 22-year-old son of Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe, has landed a role in Netflix's film adaptation of Lynn Painter's bestselling novel Better Than the Movies, just three months after graduating from New York University.
Netflix announced the casting on social media Thursday, revealing that Phillippe, Nicole Bruner, Luke Kirby, Judy Greer, Claire Coffee, Ora Duplass, Veronica Garrubbo and Kynlee Heiman would join Beatrice Kitsos and David Iacono in the film. Phillippe shared the streamer's post to his Instagram Stories, calling his castmates "gang," and told followers in a separate post that he was "beyond grateful."
Phillippe made his acting debut in 2022's Never Have I Ever before appearing in the 2025 Prime Video series Motorheads. He is set to star in 4 Kids Walk Into a Bar in 2027.
Playing Michael Young
Phillippe is set to play the role of Michael Young in Better Than the Movies, the adaptation of Lynn Painter's number one New York Times bestseller, which was published by Simon & Schuster in 2021.
Nicole Bruner is known for High Potential, Luke Kirby for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Judy Greer for In Memoriam, Claire Coffee for FBI, Ora Duplass for Their Town, Veronica Garrubbo for Love Language and Kynlee Heiman for The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.
Production on the project, directed by Julia Hart, began in Chicago on Thursday, according to Deadline, the same day the additional cast members were announced.
The plot and its leads
Beatrice Kitsos and David Iacono's lead roles were announced in July. According to Deadline, Better Than the Movies centers on Liz Buxbaum, played by Kitsos, whose obsession with rom-com movies proves helpful when she schemes with her annoying but cute next-door neighbor, played by Iacono, to get the attention of her untouchable crush.
The casting means Phillippe, who graduated from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in May, could draw further comparisons to his actor father, Ryan Phillippe. Mostly focused on a music career in production and songwriting, Ryan's lookalike son occasionally dips into modeling and acting.
A famous resemblance
In September 2021, Ryan Phillippe, star of I Know What You Did Last Summer, spoke to E! News about where his son gets his looks. "Obviously, there is a father-son resemblance, but he actually looks a lot more like Reese's side of the family. Ava looks more like mine," he said, adding that Deacon is "way better looking than I am."
Witherspoon and Phillippe's history
Witherspoon and Phillippe wed in 1999 and were the "It" couple of the early 2000s until their separation in 2006. Their divorce was finalized a year later.
Phillippe blamed the split primarily on their young age when they married, telling W Magazine it was the "darkest, saddest place" he had ever known. Witherspoon, who wrapped filming the fifth and final season of The Morning Show on August 8, with the season set to air in 2027, described their divorce as "humiliating and very isolating," according to Page Six. The exes have remained friendly throughout their post-divorce, co-parenting years.
Witherspoon's relationship with Oliver Haarmann
Witherspoon has been quietly dating Searchlight Capital founding partner Oliver Haarmann since 2024. The actress is said to be relieved that her boyfriend is not a fellow celebrity.
"She likes that he's outside of the entertainment world," a source told People. "He's very driven in his own career and that really works for Reese, who loves being busy and focused. They have a lot of fun together and things between them are going really well."
