She was one of the best-known faces on the big screen during the eighties and nineties, but Meg Ryan, who turns 60 this Friday the 19th, more than a decade ago put a certain distance between her and the mecca of cinema .
In an interview with The New York Times Magazine in 2019, the actress noted that the distance came from both sides: “I think the feeling with Hollywood was mutual. I felt it was over when they felt it was over, probably. “
Ryan’s relationship with the cinema began without her looking for him, as he has commented on several occasions “I never dreamed of being an actress.”
Margaret Mary Emily Anne Hyra, her real name, was born in Connecticut, in the United States.
His parents married young, both in their twenties and, over time, they grew apart from each other. They finally parted ways.
His mother moved in, hoping to build an acting career, and his father, a math teacher, stayed in the family home with Ryan and his three siblings.
Meg moved to New York to study journalism. “I really didn’t pretend to be an actress,” Ryan said in conversation with fellow actress Gwyneth Paltrow, Entertainment Tonight reported.
“I was a journalism student in college and a curious person. And I wanted to go out into the world and discover who I was, in relation to other things, other people and other environments ”, he commented.
He started in the world of advertising and acting to earn money, but little by little this activity was gaining ground in his life.
At the age of 20 he appeared in his first movie “Rich and Famous”. Five years later, in 1986, came the role that was a defining step to fame, that of Carol Bradshaw in “Top Gun,” a film starring Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis.
A year later he obtained her first starring role in the film “Innerspace”, Directed by James Dante, on the set of which she met the actor who a few years later became her husband for a decade, the actor Dennis Quaid.
+ Premiere in comedy
In 1989, he made his debut in one of the genres that brought him the most fame and recognition, that of romantic comedies, with “When Harry Met Sally.”
In this same category are other of her titles that made her a very popular actress such as “Joe versus the Volcano”, “Prelude to a Kiss”, “Sleepless in Seattle”, “French Kiss,” You’ve Got an Email ”and“ Kate and Leopold ”, among others.
She shone during the eighties and nineties and, thanks to these types of films, it was not long before she was labeled “America’s bride”.
Her roles in other records, such as “When a Man Loves a Woman” or “City of Angels” seemed to have less impact on viewers, regardless of the box office result.
One of these cases was the 2003 film “In the Cut”, which did not have a great acceptance from the public or critics, although she liked her work on the film.
“I feel like that could have been the last movie I should have made. I was surprised by the negative reaction, “he told The New York Times Magazine.
“’In the Cut’ was something sexual, and sex baffles people. I’ve never introduced myself like this before; it was very different from the archetype that had been assigned to me until then ”, confessed Ryan who assured that he felt that film as a turning point.
After this film she acted in a handful of other titles such as “Against the Ropes”, “In the Land of Women”, “The Women” and “Serious Moonlight”.
After this last job in 2009, she moved away from acting and did not return to the big screen until 2015. It was in “Ithaca”, a film that she directed developed in the 40s of last century in the framework of the Second War. World.
On the personal level, Ryan was married for ten years to fellow actor Dennis Quaid and has two children, Jack, the result of this relationship, and Daisy, whom he adopted in 2006. When his marriage to Quaid was dying, he had an affair with New Zealand actor Russell Crowe , his co-star in the film “Proof of Life”, shot in 2000 and finally separated in 2001.
As a result of that, she told InStyle magazine that she was no longer seen as the “bride of America” and, suddenly, she was branded as a “casquivana woman”.
“It was a great story, but what was not in his argument was what was actually in my marriage at that time,” said the actress.
“Dennis wasn’t faithful to me for a long time and that was really painful,” added.
Meg Ryan assured that she was not a victim and that the time that followed all that commotion was “interesting for my life”.
“As painful as it was, it was also incredibly liberating. I really realized that I didn’t have to worry about what people thought anymore, “he said after that episode.
.