The one thing Meg Ryan never wants to do again: “I don’t know why I did it”
Each actor has their own dream. Some are striving for awards; some are striving for broad new roles. Some want to keep levelling up and up into bigger and bigger blockbusters, while others want the freedom to appear in whatever niche arthouse flick they want. Meg Ryan had already done all that when she stumbled on one dream that she never wanted to repeat.
For a lot of actors, moving from in front of the camera to behind it is a big dream. It’s an interesting one but one that’s heard time and time again in interviews as the biggest emerging stars so often drop in the fact that they’d like to pivot to producing one day or direct their own movies.
It makes sense. If you’re a star on a film set, you’re receiving the best training possible in how to be a good crew member. It’s a masterclass in good directing if you’re spending your life being directed, seeing what tricks work, what makes people feel good and empowered in their performance, and learning what not to do. Performers get a front-row seat to it all, watching first-hand how some of the world’s top producers and directors work and picking up tricks from them. It’s surely better than any college course or any formal training could give.
For Meg Ryan, that was always the case. Throughout her career, she’s worked with some of the best in the business, such as Oliver Stone, Nora Ephron, and more. She’s starred in her fair share of blockbuster films, giving her a keen understanding of what it takes to make one and a desire to take that step one day.
Part of that came down to a desire to have a truly enduring career beyond the sexist limitations so often put on women in Hollywood. “There’s no doubt that for anybody older, roles are limited — for an actor,” she said at a film festival, “But those limits don’t exist for a director or a producer. And at a certain point, you just want to say what you mean. And sometimes, that’s not about being an actor.”
Ithaca was that pivot as she directed her first movie in 2015, followed by What Happens Later in 2023, also starring in both. But it was in that second film that she realised something she never wanted to do again.
In Ithaca, her role is relatively small. Whereas in What Happens Later, there are only two characters, meaning that she and co-star David Duchovny are on screen basically at all times. Quickly Ryan learnt that was way too much for one person to handle.
“I had so much fun acting in it. I had fun writing it, and I had a lot of fun editing it and making choices. We had to be very, very organized before we started shooting; I had to have a shot list. I had to know exactly what we were doing,” she explained, but despite all that, it quickly felt too overwhelming trying to balance it all and still be able to commit fully to her character as she said, “Yeah, I don’t really want to do it again.”
However, she is still incredibly proud of the finished product and the fact she pulled it off, stating, “Other than it being the quickest way to be really tired of yourself for, like, a year. I can’t believe … I don’t know why I did it. Honestly, I can’t believe we did it. But we did!”
