Remember when Meg Ryan was an It lady?
Right? We’re talking around the ’80s and ’90s: Top Gun, When Harry Met Sally, Joe Versus The Volcano, Sleepless in Seattle, When A Man Loves A Woman, Courage Under Fire, City of Angels, You’ve Got Mail.
Then came the aughts and we started to see a little less of Meg. Beginning with two releases in 2000 — Hanging Up and Proof of Life — and ending with Serious Moonlight in 2009. Hollywood didn’t hear much from her until 2015 when Ithaca, her directorial debut, was released.
Perhaps we can pin her absence on her relationship with the notoriously (and self-admittedly) cranky John Mellencamp, who also seemed to have gone through a lapse in production from 2011 to 2014. Though they split in August 2014 due to the difficulties of long-distance relationships – Ryan lived in NYC while Mellencamp was in Indiana — they reunited and eventually became engaged in late 2019 … but broke up again a year later.
However, it turns out that things weren’t so complicated. Ryan simply wanted to live life out of the spotlight.
“I took a giant break because I felt like there’s just so many other parts of my experience as a human being I wanted to develop,” Ryan said in a recent interview with People. Ryan is also a mother to an adopted daughter, Daisy True Ryan, 18, and a son with actor Dennis Quaid, Jack Quaid, 31.
“It’s nice to think of it as a job and not a lifestyle. And that is a great way of navigating it for me,” she told People.
Fast Forward To 2023
In her first feature since Ithaca, Meg Ryan is making a huge comeback and she’s triple-billed – writer, director and star.
Premiering on November 3, What Happens Later is a modern-day rom-com co-starring David Duchovny. They play a pair of old flames from 20-plus years prior, aptly named “William” and “Willamina” who are trying to get to Boston and Austin. The ex-lovers find themselves stuck together on an extended layover in a snowed-in regional airport and as you can guess, retrospection and revelations ensue. Is this reunion a result of coincidence or kismet? What really happened during the break-up? Was personal happiness achieved as a result of the uncoupling?
Heavily inspired by her former associate and mentor, the late Nora Ephron, with whom Ryan found early success with Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail, What Happens Next relies heavily on the chemistry and banter between its co-stars. The film is based on the play, “Shooting Star” by Stephen Dietz.
What Happens Next was released by Bleecker Street. Dying to see Ryan’s return to the big screen? Get your tickets below!
