RYAN PHILLIPPE

Ryan Phillippe, 41, plays a highly decorated U.S. Marine sniper called back into action to prevent the assassination of the president in USA Network’s Shooter, airing Tuesday nights and based on the novels by Stephen Hunter.

How would you describe the series?

My hope was for it to feel like The Fugitive or The Bourne Identity—a guy on his own up against so much, but able to use his resourcefulness and his intelligence. Special operations Marines have an incredible skill set—medical training, languages and martial arts. We are using all that.

You hold a black belt in taekwondo. Did you do any other special training?

I also got a trainer for Muay Thai and judo because I wanted to do the majority of the fight scenes myself. For me, the approach is like football season: I am going to be banged up with bruises, but in a month and a half, I will get to recover.

Members of your family served in World War II and Vietnam. Is that what draws you to military roles?

The stakes can’t be any higher than when you are a man or a woman in service, protecting the country. The possibility of death, the family left behind and the sacrifice speak to me on a personal level—and it is also fertile ground for human drama.

What do you do to relax?

I’ve been into gardening lately. I find it a relief from life’s stresses. Growing up in Delaware, we didn’t have much space or money, but my dad had the most incredible garden that we could eat from: tomatoes, lettuce, bell peppers. So that is something I am trying to do this summer.