Meg Ryan shed light on her decision to step back from Hollywood, following her starring roles in When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle.
After cementing her status as a leading lady and household name, the 61-year-old actress revealed why she took time away from her career ahead of the release of her first romantic comedy, What Happens Later, in almost 15 years.
“I took a huge break because I felt like there were so many other parts of my experience as a human being that I wanted to develop,” the mother of two told People.
She continued, “It’s nice to see it as a job and not a lifestyle. And that’s a great way for me to navigate through it.”
She is back! Meg Ryan shed light on her decision to step back from Hollywood, following her starring roles in When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle; seen in 2019
In 2015, she made her directorial debut with the drama Ithaca, based on the 1943 novel The Human Comedy by William Saroyan.
For her latest project, What Happens Later, she teamed up to direct, write and star with David Duchovny.
“It came to me during lockdown,” she enthused. “The essence of it is these two people stuck together. I just love the idea of us being held in a space, even though it feels conflicting, maybe for reasons that heal them.”
In a recent conversation with Carol Burnett for Interview magazine, Ryan shed light on the process of making her new film.
“Really, the easiest part was acting in it,” she said. “I want to direct again so I can sit in the chair because I’m sure I’ve missed a lot of things.”
The artist also noted, “I hadn’t done a role in a long time, but it was fun with David.”
She added: “A lot of it was done in two shots. I’m proud of that. I arranged everything in advance so that once we got there, it was just David and I trying to tell the truth.”
Meg explained that the process of putting the film together was “completely deliberate” – and was accomplished on a budget of $3 million.
A big break: After cementing her status as a leading lady and household name, the 61-year-old actress revealed why she took time from her career ahead of the release of her first romantic comedy, What Happens Later, in almost 15 years (seen in her 1998 film You’ve Got Mail)
‘We had to do it very quickly. A lot of those extras weren’t even ours, they were real people,” Meg revealed. “We went back to post and made the same palette for everyone. There are, thank goodness, a lot of things you can do digitally now.”
Meg rose to fame in the 1980s, playing the female love interest in hit films like the original Top Gun and When Harry Met Sally.
As the years passed, she became inextricably linked to romantic comedies, with her best-known films being Sleepless In Seattle and You’ve Got Mail.
However, her girl-next-door image took a hit in 2000 when news broke of her affair with her Proof Of Life co-star Russell Crowe.
“I took a giant break because I felt like there were so many other parts of my experience as a human being that I wanted to develop,” the mother of two told People; featured in 2009 in her hit film Serious Moonlight
As the years passed, she became inextricably linked to romantic comedies, with her best-known films including Sleepless In Seattle (seen above in 1993).
Memorable: Ryan famously played Sally Albright in the 1989 rom-com, When Harry Met Sally (pictured above)
Meg was still married to Dennis Quaid at the time, whom she later accused of being unfaithful to her for a “long time” during their relationship.
What Happens Later is the first rom-com Meg has starred in in over a decade, with the previous film in the genre being the 2009 film Serious Moonlight.
In a new trailer for What Happens Now, Meg’s character Wilhelmina and David’s character William happen to meet at an airport.
It turns out the pair are exes whose romance ended a few decades earlier – but there’s still an undeniable chemistry between them.
When both of their flights are delayed, they find themselves stuck together, waiting at the airport with nothing to do but deal with the unfinished business of their past.