August 20, 2024
Meg Ryan has opened up on the difficulties she faced while making her latest romcom What Happens Later.
The film marked Ryan’s second directorial work after 2015’s Ithaca. The actress revealed that the budget for the film was only $3 million and it was shot in three weeks.
Speaking about the challenge, she told Variety: “How fully can you see your limitations as opportunities? We didn’t have a big budget. We shot in 21 nights. The movie had to have scope.”
She revealed: “We ended up shooting in a museum in Arkansas. We couldn’t control the extras — we had to use real people. All of those things were fun to try to figure out in this limited time on this limited budget.”
The Sleepless in Seattle star was also asked to share her thoughts on the limited acting roles for older women in Hollywood.
“There’s no doubt that for anybody older, roles are limited — for an actor,” she said. “But those limits don’t exist for a director, or a producer. And at a certain point you just want to say what you mean. And sometimes, that’s not about being an actor.”
Meg Ryan added: “I just love being in the environment of storytelling… I’m just trying to tee up things like that. You just throw all kinds of things at the wall until you see what sticks.”