a famed software engineer in the thriller Antitrust, and co-starred in Robert Altman's Gosford Park, which was nominated for the Oscar for Best Picture. Subsequently Phillippe had supporting parts in the films Igby Goes Down (2002) and Crash (2005), which won the Best Picture Oscar. His 2003 film The I Inside premiered on cable. In 2006, Phillippe played real-life Navy corpsman John Bradley in the war film Flags of Our Fathers, directed by Clint Eastwood and following the journey of the United States Marines who lifted the flag at the Battle of Iwo Jima. Phillippe has said that the film was the "best experience" of his career because of its "personal meaning" to him and that he would have "given [his] life" to fight in World War II, noting that both of his grandfathers fought in the war. His performance was positively received by film critic Richard Roeper, who thought it was Phillippe's best to date. Phillippe's next role was in the thriller Breach, in which he played FBI investigator Eric O'Neill opposite Chris Cooper. He has since commented that he believes Cooper to be "the best actor America has to offer". He then starred in Chaos, in which he plays a police officer; Five Fingers, a drama set in Morocco; Kimberly Peirce's Iraq war film Stop-Loss; and the futuristic Franklyn. Next up for Phillippe was a rare comedic role as Lt. Dixon Piper in MacGruber, a film based on the Saturday Night Live (SNL) skit of the same name. It was released in the U.S. and Canada on May 21, 2010. As part of the film's promotion, Phillippe made his SNL hosting debut on April 17, 2010. Two days later, on April 19, 2010, Phillippe co-hosted WWE Raw, also in support of MacGruber. That same year, Phillippe starred in the Canadian and South African production The Bang-Bang Club, which tells the real-life story of the Bang-Bang Club, four South African photographers whose images documented the bloody end of apartheid. Phillippe stars as Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Greg Marinovich. Filming for the movie took place in South Africa beginning in March 2009. Phillippe described the filming process as "really run-and-gun. There were no comforts, and I actually appreciate that." He noted that the experience affected him, explaining that "we were shooting during the day in Soweto, and it was an endless procession of funerals — death is so common. Kids there