Catching Up With Meg Ryan

Added: 10/20/2007

Everyone has their threshold which is their ability to tolerate certain things in life and to continue to portray the same image over and over. Meg Ryan had been known for years as America's cute little sweetheart and recently she has been trying to change that image and she has been met with some resistance mostly by European fans. It is funny how one person’s threshold is someone else’s comfort level.

Meg Ryan was born Margaret Mary Emily Anne Hyra on November 19, 1961 in Fairfield, Connecticut. She graduated from high school in 1979 and moved to New York City to attend New York University for journalism. To make extra money while in school Margaret decided to try her hand at acting and took the name of Meg Ryan, which is an anagram for the word Germany, under which she would do all of her acting work. She made her big screen debut in the 1981 movie Rich And Famous which also happened to be famed director George Cukor’s last movie. From there she moved into television and got a reoccurring role on the television soap opera As The World Turns. She remained part of the As The World Turns cast from 1982 to 1984 and when she was done with her run on the soap opera she made her way out to Hollywood to try her hand at acting for a living. Once in Hollywood she landed another reoccurring television role in the show Wildside. In the middle of all of that she also made one of the Amityville Horror franchise movies when she appeared in the 1983 movie Amityville 3-D. But Meg Ryan was not cut out for horror movies and soon she would get her chance to become America’s sweetheart.

In 1986 she landed a role in the very popular movie Top Gun and now the world had taken notice of Meg Ryan. That same year she starred in the comedy Armed And Dangerous with the late John Candy and it looked like Meg Ryan was on her way. In 1987 she got her chance to be in an Oscar winning movie when she appeared in the comedy Innerspace. It won a special effects Oscar and Meg Ryan got rave reviews for her part in the movie. But it was her 1989 role in the movie When Harry Met Sally that put Meg Ryan permanently on the Hollywood map and made her a star. With Rob Reiner directing Meg Ryan made movie history with one of the most memorable scenes Hollywood has ever seen when she did her fake orgasm in a restaurant seen. When Meg Ryan’s fake orgasm was followed up by Rob Reiner’s mother saying “I’ll have what she’s having” a Hollywood legend was born and Meg Ryan was well on her way to becoming one of the most successful actresses in Hollywood.

In 1990 Meg Ryan appeared with Tom Hanks in Joe Versus The Volcano and it was the first of three movies with Hanks that would help to really cement Meg Ryan’s wholesome good girl image. In 1993 she appeared with Hanks again in Sleepless In Seattle and this marked her run of several years, and several very successful movies, where Meg Ryan appeared in feel good romantic comedies that made the whole world fall in love with her and earned her the title of America’s sweetheart. At first Meg Ryan thought it was an honor that people would think of her in such a positive way but after a while the media began to turn on her as being too sweet and she was being parodied on late night comedy shows for being the sickly sweet America’s sweetheart. Meg Ryan wanted a change.

In 2003 Meg Ryan made In The Cut where she appeared nude. In her movies immediately prior to that, and most of her work after, she went out of her way to take roles that were against her America’s sweetheart image. The response so far has been mixed as movie audiences normally do not react well to change especially when that change involves their sweetheart going bad. Lately Meg Ryan has been getting some very dark and disturbing press and it may be that she will never fight the America’s sweetheart image that she spent years developing.

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