Of her over 30 films, Meg Ryan has only done a handful of romantic comedies. However, they're her most unforgettable roles — Sally in When Harry Met Sally, Annie in Sleepless in Seattle, and Kathleen in You've Got Mail. After ruling the 1990s, Ryan took a step back from the spotlight after her pivot to grittier roles fell flat a decade or so ago. And now, she's returning with gusto, revealing in a New York Times interview that she's headed back to her roots and is writing her own romantic comedy.
Many of Ryan's characters came from the brain of the late Nora Ephron, with whom Ryan had a deep professional and personal friendship. It's likely their work together inspired Ryan's decision to take her own stab at the genre, the product of which is still TBD.
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"It’s at Working Title Films. I’ll just leave it at that," she told NYT's David Marchese. "Getting the green light, David. My God. You feel like you’re jinxing it if you’re talking about it. Hopefully it’s for me to direct. I’m aware now that romantic comedies are confections, but they have construction. There’s architecture. It’s not something I was aware of back then."
Ryan said real-life couple Kumail Nanjiani and Emily Gordon's indie hit The Big Sick is a recent romantic comedy she's enjoyed. Like Nanjiani and Gordon, Ryan has no better inspiration to draw from than her own hilarious romantics experiences on and off screen. After all, she was the one who added the fake orgasm to the iconic scene in When Harry Met Sally, so who knows what else she has up her sleeve now that she's in charge.
Turns out, a TV show. While the status of her romantic comedy is pretty in flux, Ryan had more details to share about a "murder-mystery" comedy she's working on with Saturday Night Live's Lorne Michaels.
"It’s not really a sitcom," Ryan explained. "I can’t believe NBC might do it, because it’s so odd. Right now I’d be producing. Maybe I’ll act in it. I don’t know. It’s a limited series, three seasons."
All that, plus an engagement? I'll have what she's having.