Ryan Phillippe has said he was suicidal after his 2006 split with wife of seven years Reese Witherspoon.

“After the divorce, I was a physical wreck. I wanted to die,” he told the Autumn-Winter 2007-2008 of U.K. magazine Man About Town. “I was ready to kill myself. I was not taking care of myself at all. I would wake up and cry and vomit.”

The actor, 33 – who shares custody of their children, Ava, 8, and Deacon, 4 — says the experience has ultimately made him a better actor: He can cry faster on cue.

“Now, it’s f---king easy," he says. "When I was younger, I didn’t have enough to cry about. But since I’ve had kids, I feel my work has become better, because my life is fuller and more complicated, and I’ve experienced so many highs and lows.”

Phillippe will return to big screen in the March drama Stop Loss — which again teams him with former flame Abbie Cornish, who he was seeing right before he split with Witherspoon — but don't expect him to star in any commercials.

He dissed Catherine Zeta-Jones' decision to star in T-Mobile ads, saying, "When I see her in a movie it’s hard to disassociate the two.”