The calculated risk that derailed Meg Ryan’s career: “They didn’t like me doing it”
Despite being known for roles in some of the most beloved rom-coms of all time, Meg Ryan also has a few other tricks up her sleeves. After rising to fame through performances in genius classics such as When Harry Met Sally, Top Gun and Sleepless in Seattle, Ryan became one of the most renowned leading ladies of the 1980s and ‘90s, with audiences swooning over her effortless charisma and witty one-liners. Whether it be the timeless gendered debate explored in Nora Ephron’s delightful love story or her chemistry with co-stars such as Tom Hanks and Billy Crystal, the actor is an indelible part of the cultural landscape and cinematic icon.
However, like many women in the public eye, Ryan found herself pegged into one Hollywood box and struggled to establish herself outside of the rom-com, with the actor being offered one role that changed everything for her, despite being warned against it.
Jane Campion is undoubtedly one of the most influential directors of the twenty-first century, becoming one of the few women to win the Oscar for Best Director after the success of her 2021 film, The Power of the Dog. She is most renowned for her 1993 film The Piano, a subtle story of desire and forbidden love on a remote island, with the arrival of a piano eliciting a sordid and fateful attraction.
While the director is most known for her tales of desire, restraint and repressed sexuality, she also tried her hand at the action genre in 2003 with In The Cut, in which she controversially cast Meg Ryan in the lead role, despite her sugary sweet reputation in a very opposing genre.
The film is set in the aftermath of a brutal New York murder, with an English teacher beginning a risky relationship with a police detective. In many ways, Campion lures audiences to the story through the promise of romance, something that Ryan is associated with in her previous roles. However, she flips the narrative by turning it into a gruesome and dark tale, creating a claustrophobic film that we cannot escape from, even if we desperately want to.
When describing the project, Ryan spoke about the warnings she was given against starring in such a disturbing story, saying, “People did not like it and they didn’t like me doing it. What I really learnt is that I had assumed a kind of girl-next-door archetype, and when you mess with an archetype, you have to ask permission.”
Campion’s decision to use Ryan’s reputation to manipulate and shock the audience was nothing short of genius, twisting the tropes associated with the romance genre to create a film about the complications of power dynamics in sexual relationships, violence and dominance, taking the format of the erotic thriller to new levels of anxiety and threat. Understandably, audiences weren’t used to seeing Ryan in such a role, but the film is a welcome diversion in her filmography and one that showcases the lesser-seen depths of her talents.
