Why Meg Ryan has no regrets over the 2003 movie that destroyed her career: “I’m very proud”
When Meg Ryan was at the height of her career, she found herself boxed into a certain archetype by the public, who very much saw her as the girl-next-door type who you’d most likely find in a rom-com.
Certainly, most of Ryan’s greatest films fit into the romantic comedy genre, like the classic 1989 Rob Reiner movie When Harry Met Sally…, arguably one of the greatest rom-coms ever made. It’s the perfect enemies-to-friends, will-they-won’t-they, friends-to-lovers film, using these iconic tropes without the narrative ever feeling clichéd or stale.
Of course, we know that Harry and Sally are going to eventually end up together, but the journey to get there is filled with both wit and emotion, and Ryan’s performance alongside Billy Crystal is just perfect.
With the success of When Harry Met Sally… under her belt, she spent the ‘90s appearing in various other hit romantic movies, like Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail, both starring Tom Hanks and directed by Nora Ephron (who’d also written Reiner’s 1989 hit). Yet, Ryan soon began to realise that she was being put into a box, and few roles were coming in that weren’t romance or comedy oriented.
While she occasionally opted for something a little darker, like 1993’s thriller Flesh and Bone or 2000’s action thriller Proof of Life, the actor’s legacy in Hollywood was secured as the romantic type, so people were shocked when she starred in an erotic psychological thriller in 2003. In The Cut was a far cry from the movies people were used to seeing Ryan in; in fact, she shocked many by getting naked on camera, leading to intense backlash.
Reflecting on the response to her racy role in Jane Campion’s film, which she’d taken on after Nicole Kidman dropped out, she once told The New York Times, “I know that when I did In The Cut, the reaction was vicious. […] 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.”
There was even an infamous clash between Ryan and Michael Parkinson when he asked her in an interview why she hadn’t prepared audiences for a nude scene. It was a turning point in her life, but since that moment, her acting career has been sporadic. “I feel like that might’ve been the last movie I did,” she’d said.
But does she have regrets? It might appear as though the movie essentially destroyed Ryan’s career, but she would certainly do it again if she had the chance. Talking to The Credits, the actor revealed, “I’m very proud of that movie. I just don’t read so much about it. I’m proud of working with her, of course. I love Mark [Ruffalo] in that movie. I love the darkness of that movie. That movie made me feel, maybe for the first time ever, that I was an actress.”
It’s a true shame, then, that the movie wasn’t appreciated at the time, with Ryan’s nude scenes instead causing significant controversy. Though in recent years, the film has become much more acclaimed, a misunderstood gem, perhaps too ahead of its time.
