With her long-awaited return to romantic comedy now imminent, Meg Ryan opens up about what prompted her eight-year hiatus from Hollywood.
In an interview with People published Wednesday, the “Sleepless in Seattle” actress said she just wants to focus on other things, including motherhood.
“I took a huge break because I felt like there were just so many other areas of my experience as a human being that I wanted to develop,” Ryan said, noting that she was able to spend more time with her son Jack Quaid , with whom she shares her ex-husband Dennis Quaid and daughter Daisy Ryan.
She added: “It’s nice to look at it as a job and not a lifestyle. And that’s a great way for me to navigate that.”
According to People, Ryan received permission from the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists – to speak about her new film “What Happens Later” during the Hollywood actors’ strike. Loosely based on Steven Dietz’s 2010 play “Shooting Star,” the romantic comedy follows Willa (played by Ryan) and Bill (David Duchovny), a former couple who unexpectedly get back together after falling asleep during a snowstorm airport is stranded.
Ryan also co-wrote and directed “What Happens Later,” her first film since 2015’s “Ithaca.” It is also her first romantic comedy since 2001’s “Kate & Leopold.”
Watch the trailer for “What Happens Later” below.
In a conversation with Carol Burnett published by Interview Magazine in August, Ryan said she first received an early version of Dietz’s “What Happens Later” script shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic began. The unexpected time off that soon followed, she explained, “made me think about what was going on in the world, how we were all kept under wraps, so to speak.”
“The story started to be about how do we begin to forgive ourselves and each other,” she said. “It’s a romantic comedy, so you have to ask these deeper questions often in secret and hope that people can sense them underneath it all.”
In the mid-to-late 1990s, Ryan rivaled Sandra Bullock and Julia Roberts as one of the film industry’s most successful female actresses, thanks to her well-received roles in “Harry and Sally” and “You’ve Got Mail.”
In recent years, she has been open about her decision to step away from the spotlight and, like many women in her demographic, has faced undue scrutiny over her appearance.
Ryan cited the influence of Nora Ephron — the late screenwriter behind “Harry and Sally,” “Sleepless in Seattle” and “You’ve Got Mail” — on “What Happens Later,” which hits theaters Nov. 3.
“Nora Ephron used to say about romantic comedies that they’re secretly an incredible system for commenting on the times,” she told Entertainment Weekly in August, “and that’s what we do in this film.”