Anatomy of a Scene's Anatomy: Meg Ryan Goes from America's Sweetheart to Pariah with 'In the Cut'

<< Blog | Editorial Features Tuesday, November 26, 4:00 PMTue, 26 Nov 2019 @ 4:00 PM by Thrustin' Hoffman

In our weekly seriesAnatomy of a Scene's Anatomy, we're going to be taking a look at (in)famous sexscenes and nude scenes throughout cinema history and examining their construction, their relationship to the film around it, and their legacy. This week, Meg Ryan completes her fall from grace, losing her status as America's Sweetheart thanks to her sexually adventurous role in Jane Campion's erotic thriller In the Cut!

Starting with her winning role as the titular female in 1989's When Harry Met Sally, Meg Ryan began her ascentto becoming one of the most beloved and bankable stars in Hollywood. Throughout the 90s, she dominated the romantic dramedy genre thanks to flicks like French Kiss, City of Angels, and most importantly, her Tom Hanks trilogy—Joe Versus the Volcano, Sleepless in Seattle, and You've Got Mail. She was seemingly unstoppable, churning out multiple movies in nearly every year of the 90s, becoming a brand all unto herself.

Then in 2000, she took a role opposite the up-and-coming Russell Crowe in the film Proof of Life, earning herself a cool $15 million salary for a film that sounded like it might be a potential awards contender. However, the film was immediately overshadowed by the personal drama unfolding on set between Ryan and Crowe, who had become romantically involved. While the studio hoped that this publicity would translate into boffo box office,the no-longer-clandestine affair became the story and the film became forgotten. The story, instead, became about how Ryan's marriage to Dennis Quaid was effectively over aftermore than ten years together.

While Ryan and Quaid were never on the "Kurt and Goldie" level of Hollywood royalty, they were one of the more aspirational couples in the business, one that seemed to have their act together. However, things weren't as rosy as they seemed and the couple had been on the outs with one another since 1999. They weren't legally separated until late June, 2000, however, which is around the time the story broke that she and Crowe had been having a fling while shooting Proof of Life in Ecuador. The affair was short-lived, but the damage was lasting.

Inan interview with The New York Times Magazineearlier this year, Ryan opened up about a wide variety of subjects, including the harsh spotlight shone on her during this tumultuous time in her life...

“That was another big turning point in my evolution. I’d never felt like I was all that concerned with what people thought of me, but then that story never got told right.It’s a real gift when you know you can’t ever really manage an image or a story and you stop caring. I felt the effect, like I was the bad guy or whatever the story was. But I remember letting go of needing to correct anybody. Divorce is hard. Love is hard. All those things were so personal. They weren’t for mass consumption. The complexity of a life or a marriage is never going to exist in a headline or a tabloid. That was a freeing thing to know! Though fame has become so democratized now."

Ryan's next film—the 2001 romantic time-traveler comedy Kate Leopoldco-starring Hugh Jackman—was a box office flop,promptingRyan to take all of 2002 off to regroup. Later that same year, Oscar winning writer/director Jane Campion's latest project In the Cut—based on the 1995 Susanna Moore novel of the same name—had just lost its star and producer, Nicole Kidman, who was similarly going through a tumultuous time in her personal life. Campion could salvage the project, provided she found an equally bankable star to front the film... Enter, Meg Ryan.

While Ryan had never been shy about doing nudity in the past, she still had this reputation for being, you know, your mom's favorite actress. This made the lead role of Frannie Avery—mild-mannered teacher by day, sexual aggressive woman by night—seem all the more outside of Ryan's wheelhouse, which goes a long way toward explaining what likely attracted her tothe role.In the Cut finds Ryan's Frannie getting into aborderline abusive sexualrelationship with a kinky detective (Mark Ruffalo) shesoon comes to suspect is a vicious murderer of single women currently on the loose.

Ruffalo was right at home in the film, as he wasn't a known commodity yet and had no problem showing his dick on screen, and Ryan matches him step for step in this regard. In fact, if this were your hypothetical introduction to Meg Ryan, you'd likely assume she was in that same league of indie actors unafraid to explore sexual taboos on screen. The two actors spend more than six minutes of screen time getting it on, with an equal amount of time spent completely nude just talking to one another...

Seeing Meg Ryan fully nude was likely a bridge too far for a lot of her diehard fansandCampion's valiant attempts to help Ryan reinvent her image were probably the victim of poor timing more than anything else. Admittedly, the film is far from high art, but Campion—along with heroutstanding cast including Ryan, Ruffalo, Kevin Bacon, andJennifer Jason Leigh—help elevate it from Cinemax to cinematic. Plus, I just refuse to write off any film where Mark Ruffalo eats Meg Ryan's ass...

The film received mixed reviews at best, witha fair number ofcritics reservingtheir disdain for Ryanand herperformance. Seemingly eager to kick her when she was down, the reviews read like an epic pile-on rather than actual, you know, criticism...

From the same NYTM interview cited above, Ryan also discusses why her turn as a sexuallyvoraciouscharacter ultimately backfired...

“I don’t think I handled it well. Since then, I’ve had publicists say to me, ‘You should’ve prepared your audience for your doing something different.’In the Cutwas a sexual thing, and sex throws people. I’d never presented myself like that before; it was so different from my assigned archetype,” she said. “Probably I had a very neutered image.Carrie Fisherwas the one who said: ‘No, no, no. When you betray your archetype by doing a movie like that and by getting divorced — you can’t.’ Yeah,In the Cutfelt like a real turning point.”

And what a gloriously sexy turning point it was. While it's a shame this film kinda put the final nail in the coffinhousing her stardom, it was ballsy of her to take the role in the first place. The most disappointing thing for any actor has to be when they take a huge career risk and it doesn't pay off. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Meg Ryan got a bum rap over In the Cut, and it's time for the film and her performance in it to undergo a serious critical reevaluation.

Catch up with our other editions of Anatomy of a Scene's Anatomy...

—The "Real Sex" ofDon't Look Now

—Scarlett Johansson's Nude Debut inUnder the Skin

—The 2 Very Different Sex ScenesofBasic Instinct

—How Halle Berry's Nude Debut Led Her toMonster's Ball

—HowMulholland Dr.'s Legendary Lesbian Scenes Deepen the Film's Mystery

—Showgirlsand the Dangers of High Camp

—Rosario Dawson Laid Bare for Danny Boyle'sTrance

—Katie Holmes MakesThe GiftWorth Remembering

—Jennifer Connelly Comes of Age inThe Hot Spot

—Lisa Bonet's Bloody Nude Debut inAngel Heart

—Monica Bellucci Gets Brutalized in Gaspar Noé'sIrréversible