Deacon Phillippe makes his feature film acting debut in "Brother Save Us," an indie sci-fi thriller premiering at the Nashville Film Festival on Sept. 26.

The 24-year-old son of Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe plays a farmer in a dystopian America fighting to save his family farm and shield his younger brother, played by Thomas Murphy Molony, from a conglomerate replacing human workers with AI bots. First-time writer and director Jesse Behrenwald helms the project.

Phillippe insists Hollywood lineage alone would not carry him. He graduated from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in May, studying recorded music at the Clive Davis Institute.

"That was a really big thing, and I think I'm really glad I was pushed to make sure I got that done," Phillippe said in a Zoom interview from his New York apartment. "I'm beyond grateful for my education, and I think It's provided so many things."

The education fed directly into the film. Phillippe wrote the end credits song for "Brother Save Us" and recorded it with two college friends using the school's studios. "We ended up recording the end credits song that I wrote with two of my friends from college at school because we had these state-of-the-art studios," he said.

The role marks a step up from earlier screen work: two episodes of "Never Have I Ever" in 2022 and a turn playing the younger brother of his father's character in flashback scenes of the Prime Video series "Motorheads."

Phillippe is direct about his position in the industry. "I acknowledge that I'm extremely lucky, but you know, at the same time, I hold myself to a standard," he said. "I'm not really looking to prove anything to anyone but myself to try to be the best version I can be, the best person I can be and work as hard as I can. A lot of people are going to assume things … All I can do is do my thing, and show that I want to work extremely, extremely hard."

The script's fraternal core drew him in. "I just remember feeling surprised that someone could write exactly how I feel about my little brother," Phillippe said, referring to Tennessee Toth, the son Witherspoon shares with her ex-husband Jim Toth. "That depth of love in a script is just something you rarely get to see."

Next, Phillippe moves into his mother's territory with a role in "Better Than the Movies," Julie Hart's Netflix adaptation of Lynn Painter's novel about a high schooler obsessed with romantic comedies. "It's a rom-com that pays homage to many rom-coms, and I really appreciate the era of '90s rom-coms," he said. "I don't want say too much about the project, but working with Julia Hart and [cowriter] Jordan Horowitz has already been the most incredible, fun, smooth and beautiful process."

Asked to name his favorite rom-com starring his mother, he chose "Sweet Home Alabama" — then admitted the strangeness of watching his parents on screen. "It's very weird to watch your parents act. It's hard. I remember when I was a kid, I watched one of my dad's first movies, 'White Squall,' and I was crying because they were bullying him in the movie," he said.

"But as you get older, there's something magical about watching your parents young and at your age," he continued. "I'm always in awe of their careers and all that they've done. That's why I'm always leaning on them for advice, which is another thing I'm blessed to have."

Beyond acting, Phillippe is developing a script with his best friend. "It involves music. It involves true stories from our lives," he said, adding that his dream projects include "or a 'Real Steel' remake." The 2011 original, directed by Shawn Levy and based on Richard Matheson's 1956 short story "Steel," starred Hugh Jackman as a washed-up boxer who trains a fighting robot.

"I love 'Real Steel,'" Phillippe said. "I think bringing the nostalgia back from that IP would be really fun."

With a festival premiere, a Netflix rom-com and an original screenplay in motion, Phillippe enters the fall with his career building on his own terms.