Today, Meg Ryan is trending on Google. Why? One may think it's because after not being spotted in public for six months, she appeared at a screening in support of her long-time friend Michael J. Fox's new documentary Still. Just seeing the iconic star Meg Ryan at all might be an occasion enough worthy to warrant countless Google searches for her - but no, that's not it, the real reason is much more dire.
After Page Six reported the Meg Ryan looks 'unrecognisable' these days, the tabloids terror reigned down on her. The result is all sorts of searches around her face, including 'Meg Ryan plastic surgery' and 'Meg Ryan face now'. Eugh, another icon of Hollywood reduced to vile cracks about her ageing process - it truly never gets less revolting to witness this boring, relentlessly sexist cycle again and again.
The last time Meg Ryan was in the press, it was a joyous occasion. Netflix had just started airing You've Got Mail in time for Autumn - and it was a delightful time to re-enjoy her classic role. But it also brought up a lot of questions. What ever happened to Meg Ryan after You've Got Mail?, and how did the industry manage to do her SO dirty - as they continue to do right now, by dissecting her face at the first glimpse we get of her in half a year?
In You've Got Mail, Meg Ryan is infectious. Her optimism is winning. Her sadness is devastating. Her hair is fantastic. It is her performance - not that of Tom Hanks - that draws us in, and permits us to forget that Tom's character Joe is duplicitous and deceitful. It came as no surprise, of course, that Meg possesses the perfect combination of comedic and dramatic talent. She had displayed it previously in When Harry Met Sally - one of the greatest, if not the greatest, romantic comedy of all time - and later in Sleepless in Seattle, her first of three collaborations with Tom that, again, allowed us to ignore borderline deranged behaviour thanks to the sheer, unadulterated loveliness that she exudes from every, glowing pore. She is a sublime actor, with the power to elevate the most dense of schmaltz (Kate & Leopold anyone?) and lend heart to melodrama (City Of Angels did her wrong. I am still not over it.) And yet, her post-Ephron output has in no way matched that of Tom's. She has no Oscar nominations to her name. Her acting work in the last ten to fifteen years has been limited to guest appearances, voice work and a few larger films that made little impact on the global box office. So what happened?
Meg herself claims that it is her choice to take a step back from Hollywood. 'I felt in a crazy way that, as an actor, I was burning through life experiences,' she said in 2019. 'I was burned out. I didn't feel like I knew enough anymore about myself or the world to reflect it as an actor. I felt isolated.' She added that, while she does receive offers, 'they're not things I want to do.' But the fact that she has received bids for projects that do not interest her is indicative of how Hollywood treats its women.
You've Got Mail was one of the many films where Meg played the slightly kooky, disarmingly kind romantic lead to a similarly cliched handsome, but not too handsome man. The men she starred opposite - Billly Crystal, Hugh Jackman, Matthew Broderick, Tom, of course - went on to varied careers, lending their talents to drama, action and musicals. She continued to receive more of the same. Her attempts to prove to the world that she was capable of so much more - via roles in Jane Campion's In The Cut or boxing drama Against The Ropes - made little impact financially, as if the world didn't want to see Meg Ryan in anything other than the classic Meg Ryan film. That infamous, painful Michael Parkinson interview in which Meg tolerates - with barely disguised disdain - the veteran TV host's crass disbelief that she could appear in a role that involved simulated anilingus seemed a harbinger of doom: Meg was refusing to do what was expected of her, and the world recoiled.
In one way, though, she may have done exactly what was expected of a woman getting older in the media glare, in her alleged pursuit of plastic surgery. It is impossible to say for sure what she may or may have had done to her face - no official comment has been made and it's not really any of our business. But to some, she may as well have been invisible ever since. In the words of Elise Elliot - played by Goldie Hawn in seminal, feminist comedy The First Wives' Club - Hollywood wants one of three women: 'babe, District Attorney, and Driving Miss Daisy.' Those who attempt to hold onto the first option via any means necessary risk ruling themselves out of this already limited cycle, which does not know what to do with women who age beyond thirty.
Meg Ryan was - is - a talented actor who deserved to be more lauded at her peak, and also should have been inundated since with varied, interesting work worthy of the talent that some dismissed, because it came from a beautiful woman, and because comedy inexplicably continues to be seen as the lesser cousin of drama. Her vague exit from Hollywood circles may have been her own choice, but it speaks to a greater problem. Meg Ryan fitted in a specific box, until she no longer did, and with her purpose served she was left to float away. But do yourself a favour: watch You've Got Mail this autumn. Revisit Sleepless In Seattle and When Harry Met Sally. In those three performances alone, she has made a mark on culture that few could ever dream of, and no one could ever take away from her.
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