Meg Ryan, who captivated audiences with iconic films like You've Got Mail and Sleepless in Seattle, is making a comeback to the big screen after an eight-year hiatus with a new rom-com titled What Happens Later.
What Happens Later is a film she also co-wrote and directed. In the movie, Ryan takes on the role of Willa, who finds herself stranded at an airport overnight alongside a former lover, portrayed by David Duchovny.
"Sometimes there's a question of: Will they be together? Will they not be together?" Ryan teased to Entertainment Weekly. "For that reason, [What Happens Later] sort of evolves the rom-com genre just a little bit. It's also about old people, and it's still romantic and sexy."
Ryan's return to the screen with What Happens Later marks her first onscreen appearance since her 2015 film Ithaca, which she also directed.
While Ryan initially gained fame through her rom-com roles, she showcased her versatility by excelling in both romantic comedies and dramatic films. However, her visibility in Hollywood noticeably declined over the past decade for several reasons.
Back in 2018, the 61-year-old made a rare public appearance, attending the In Goop Health wellness summit where she spoke with Gwyneth Paltrow about leaving Hollywood and shared that she had been "very reactive instead of proactive," in her career.
"I didn't really aim to be an actor," she revealed. "I was a journalism major at school, and a curious person, and I wanted to go back out into the world and figure out who I was — am — in relation to other things and other people and other environments."
The actress also weighed in on that infamous "America's sweetheart" label.
"When you get labeled anything like 'America’s sweetheart,' I didn’t even know what that meant," she explained. "Nora Ephron's parents wrote scripts in old Hollywood and there was such a thing as America's Sweetheart in the '40s and she decided to say that about me one day and I remember thinking, 'Is that good?'"
In 2019, the actress opened up to New York Times Magazine about feeling disconnected from the world as a result of her fame. "Ever get in a car — maybe it’s a superexpensive car — and the inside's lovely, you can't complain about it, but you can't hear anything outside, because there's so much metal? There's so much between you and everything else," Ryan explained.
"You're at a disadvantage as a young, famous person because you don't know who's telling you the truth. I'm not complaining — there are so many advantages to being famous — but there are fundamental disadvantages for a part of your brain, your self, your soul. My experiences were too limited."
In the same year, she told People magazine that she was focusing on parenting and was happy with her retreat from Hollywood.
"Most of all, what I'm ambitious for in the 12 hours a day that I'm awake is my kids' happiness," she shared. "I just am. I'm either figuring out how to provide for them, figuring out how to say it right, figuring out all those mom things. I want them to be happy."