Meg Ryan names her most unfairly treated role: “It was lost when the movie came out”
The film industry is full of gambles and risks; you never know if a project will be a critical hit or a commercial flop. Sometimes, a film doesn’t get the recognition it deserves and goes years before it’s properly reconsidered. There are plenty of reasons why a film might fail on release, and in some frustrating cases, it’s down to factors outside an actor’s control, like societal prejudice or misogynistic backlash.
Meg Ryan came to experience this during the early 2000s, finding herself the subject of much controversy following a risk-taking film that fared rather badly with critics. The actor had previously established herself as a rom-com icon, appearing in movies like When Harry Met Sally, You’ve Got Mail, and Sleepless in Seattle, becoming one of the most well-known stars of the era. She also starred in movies like Top Gun, The Doors, and Flesh and Bone, but for the most part, she was widely known for embodying a stereotypical ‘girl next door’ archetype.
Thus, when she decided to appear in an erotic thriller which involved various nude and sexually-charged scenes, many people were shocked to see the actor, who was in her early 40s at the time, in the role. In The Cut, directed by Jane Campion, emerged in 2003, and critics were divided. The movie also starred Mark Ruffalo, Kevin Bacon, and Jennifer Jason Leigh, with Ryan’s character embarking on an affair with a detective whom she meets after he begins investigating some local murders.
The film saw Ryan clash with interviewer Michael Parkinson in an infamous video, which saw him ask her questions like “How could you be naked?” and telling her, “You should’ve prepared your audience for your doing something different.” The actor believed that the backlash she received from the performance was incredibly harsh, telling The New York Times, “I know that when I did In The Cut, the reaction was vicious. I feel like that might’ve been the last movie I did. I was surprised by the negative reaction. I loved the movie and loved that experience and loved Jane Campion.”
“In The Cut was a sexual thing, and sex throws people. I’d never presented myself like that before; it was so different from my assigned archetype. Probably, I had a very neutered image,” she continued, explaining her belief that it was the shock of her uncharacteristic performance that led to such a mixed reception from audiences.
It has been over two decades since In the Cut was released, and in the years since, many viewers have started to reassess the movie. Campion is known for her explorations of feminist themes and spotlighting of complex female characters, so it’s no surprise that people have looked back at In The Cut and celebrated its unique take on the erotic thriller genre.
Ryan told Hot Corn, “I’m so happy to talk about In The Cut now, because it was a feminist deconstruction of romantic myth. And we knew that. It was a conversation I had with Jane, but it was lost when the movie came out because of the sense that I’m naked and all the sensational parts of it. But it was such an intelligent attempt at deconstructing those things.”
That’s one of the reasons why Ryan found it so disheartening to see the movie fail – she knew that it was an attempt to take a groundbreaking look at female sexuality and eroticism, but it seemed to fly over many people’s heads. “She’s such a brilliant filmmaker. She would say to me that the Arthurian idea of a white knight coming into a woman’s life is actually a very, very dangerous thing. It sets everyone up for failure, men and women alike. And how old is that movie? Like 15 years old by now? And only now, we get to have a smart conversation about it,” Ryan concluded.
