The one scene Meg Ryan dreaded shooting: “It’s not the day you look forward to”
If you’re a rom-com fan, then you know who Meg Ryan is. Hell, if you’re a fan of movies in general, then you know who Meg Ryan is. A poster child of the late 1980s and 1990s, the curly-haired wonder will go down in romantic movie history for some of her most cherished roles. She was paired up with Tom Hanks for two massive hits, Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail, but by far and away, her most memorable character was one half of the titular pairing in Rob Reiner’s When Harry Met Sally.
As Sally Albright, Ryan went on a journey alongside Billy Crystal’s Harry Burns. In the ultimate friends-to-lovers story, the two start out hating each other, then grow close as pals, before ending the narrative with the New Year’s Eve kiss to end all New Year’s Eve kisses. But come on, that’s not the scene we all remember from that film…
The moment from When Harry Met Sally that has persisted the most throughout all forms of culture is the transcendent Katz’s Delicatessen scene. Sally talks about how easy it is to fake an orgasm and, after some ill-advised comments from Harry, she recreates one in full view of everyone in the restaurant. The scene ends with a truly monumental line from an elderly onlooker, played by the director’s own mother, who succinctly remarks, ‘I’ll have what she’s having’. It’s a fantastic bit of movie history, even if Ryan’s son finds it massively cringey.
Over a decade later, the star found herself in familiar territory while making the psychological thriller In the Cut. She plays Frannie Avery, a schoolteacher living in a neighbourhood where a string of murders takes place. She becomes romantically involved with the detective overseeing the case (Mark Ruffalo), which only makes things more complicated as the truth comes out.
Due to the romantic nature of the film, which is directed by Oscar-winning icon Jane Campion, Ryan had to film a number of sex scenes with Ruffalo. Speaking to the BBC about these particular days on set, Ryan revealed that they weren’t her favourite. “It’s not the day you look forward to,” she revealed. “You see it coming up on the schedule and it’s like, ‘Uuuurgh.’ They were done on the last couple of days, in a really protected environment. They were very choreographed, we knew every shot and every angle, and Jane was incredibly collaborative about it.”
Ryan is very praising of Campion throughout the interview. Being directed by a woman during scenes like that must have been a real comfort to the actor, especially during the less sensitive times of 2003. In the modern age, there is much conversation about scenes of this nature and the role of intimacy coordinators in cinema. Mikey Madison famously refused one for her Oscar-winning turn in Anora. From this interview, it seems like Ryan is more in favour of a structured approach to filming scenes of a sexual nature, although 2003 was (sadly) a long time ago.
Sadly, In the Cut was not Ryan’s next big hit. It made a poultry $23million at the box office and was slammed by most critics who bothered to see it. Turns out all of that stress was for nothing.
