Meg Ryan: “Me Too made my daughter's school talk for the first time about consent and what a no means” | EUROtoday

Meg Ryan (Fairfield, Connecticut, 1961) It's nonetheless Meg Ryan. But in one other approach way more… Meg Ryan. That is to say, the Meg Ryan of now could be precisely the identical because the Meg Ryan of at all times, however higher. And it’s not a matter of maturity, which maybe additionally, like readability, megrianidad', a high quality that exists. It is confirmed that in case you say Meg Ryan out loud 3 times in entrance of the mirror you immediately develop into a greater individual. The legendary actress who furnished the 90s with the best variety of romantic comedies conceivable now returns to the screens along with her second movie as a director whose presentation in Spain is sponsored by the BCN Festival in Barcelona. “I feel uncomfortable talking about the history of cinema… I prefer to think that I am a novice. “I really feel like this, like a beginner,” she says by way of introduction to scare away any hint of modesty (the false one and the other). We find it difficult to believe her, but we believe her because, in effect, she is Meg Ryan. If she hit us in the orgasm of When Harry met Sallywhy not now?

What happens next, a film based on a text by Steven Dietz in which she herself stars alongside David Duchovny, is a romantic comedy, but in reverse. It all takes place in an airport where, due to the storm, two of her former lovers are stranded. They separated and a whole life later they meet again with their wounds, not all healed, their resentments and their pending accounts in perfect magazine condition. At one point, a billboard advertising a romantic comedy is unplugged. Subliminal message or declaration of principles? “Well, I'm conscious of the place I'm coming from and I needed to push the style somewhat additional… I don't disguise that I've ended up making one other romantic comedy, but it surely's additionally extra issues: it's a love story about the whole lot misplaced; it's a romance that doesn’t speak concerning the future however concerning the previous; it’s a approach of asking why we aren’t able to loving sufficient… None of that is widespread in romantic comedies, though it doesn't cease being that approach,” she says forcefully with each of the contradictions she raises and who knows if, among so much paradox, she doesn't end up creating a portrait of herself.

Do you regret as much of what you experienced as your characters? Not in vain, after Ithacafrom 2015, has spent almost a decade so far away from the cameras.

The truth is that I don't regret it. I started working so young that from very early on I felt like I was behind a shop window. Sometimes, I still feel like that. People are extremely nice to me and they have no reason to be. I admit that fame has kept me in a kind of bubble. But those ten years have not been a deliberate pause. Many things have happened. I imagine that as an artist you have the obligation to change and you have to grow inside. You can't keep saying the same thing over and over again. If I had made this film ten years ago it would be a completely different film. Now she is more mature.

It is clear.

The film is dedicated to Nora Ephron, Ryan's reference director and responsible for unforgettable titles such as You have an email o Something to remember, In addition to being a screenwriter hanging or the aforementioned When Harry… Ephron was many things (journalist, novelist or producer as well as filmmaker), and she was and is also a voice and reference for all the revolutions that eventually came. “I contemplate her a good friend and mentor… She made the whole lot simple. But, above all, “She was a woman who made intelligence an armor to protect herself and keep her ideas safe.”, says. Ryan, whose directorial debut got here earlier than Me Too, maintains that the sorority motion in opposition to machismo has in all probability meant that neither romantic comedies nor anything may be like earlier than. “The main change is that there are many more women directors and a conversation like this is not as rare as it could be before. The fact that I wrote, directed and produced this film myself is a good example of how things have changed. Now you can say what you want to say without it being interpreted first… Women say what we want to say. I don't think Nora was a pioneer, but she did make a lot of progress. And I hope the same for this little movie.”

Jane Campion, with whom I labored on 'En carne viva', mentioned that Me Too was a very powerful factor that had occurred to cinema, do you agree?

I don't know if it was a very powerful factor within the historical past of cinema, but it surely modified the whole lot. My daughter was in fourth grade when the Harvey Weinstein story broke. Instantly, lessons had been held to speak about consent and the true that means of a no. That had by no means occurred till then. I don't know for the cinema, however for my daughter's era and for all ladies it is extremely vital.

Ryan says that being an actress helps direct as a result of you realize upfront that every actor wants one thing. Some have to be directed and others, like Sam Shepard, “have to be left alone.” He additionally says that stress is as vital as studying to chill out and that if the expertise is beneficial for something, it’s to appreciate the whole lot there’s nonetheless to be taught. He tells all this on the similar time that he confesses that he by no means thinks about something just like the legacy that he leaves of her or the picture that every of the movie followers who’re, have been and can preserve intact of her.

How do you keep in mind the orgasm scene by the way in which?

The operate of cinema is to make us really feel rather less alone. Cinema doesn’t have to show something nor will we go to the cinema to be taught. No, we go to really feel like a neighborhood. Do you repeat the query?

It's the identical.

Meg Ryan, Meg Ryan, Meg Ryan. It works.

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