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# Ryan sheds ‘sweetheart’ image in new flick
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/ryan-sheds-sweetheart-image-in-new-flick/
- Published: 2003-10-31T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T03:09:10.000Z
- Author: Dan Dunn
- Tags: Entertainment, Santa Monica, #archive-import

Perennial cutie Meg Ryan delivers the most revealing performance of her 20-year film career in Jane Campion’s nourish thriller, “In The Cut.” Ryan, whose most popular roles have come in decidedly wholesome fare such as “When Harry Met Sally,” “Sleepless In Seattle” and “You’ve Got Mail,” launches a full-frontal assault on her squeaky-clean image in a movie that is as lurid as they come. The word out of Hollywood is it was only after some 11th-hour cuts that “In The Cut” avoided an NC-17 rating.

Ryan sat down recently with a group of recorder-toting folks who chronicle such happenings, to shed some light on her eye-popping image makeover.

Question: “In The Cut” presents a different Meg Ryan than we’ve seen before. Did you have any trepidation about taking on such a salacious role?

Meg Ryan: I was thrilled about working with Jane, and the material, and this style of acting that I hadn’t experimented with before.

Q: Is this an attempt to alter the public’s perception of you? After all, you’ve been “America’s Sweetheart” for some time now.

MR: No, I don’t believe in cultivating image. I think audiences see the effort more than the intended result. Also, I don’t have a huge awareness of the idea of me, or image, or whatever it is. “America’s Sweetheart” doesn’t come up in my life, except when I’m here, talking to reporters.

Q: How did the process of making this film differ from those sunnier films in which we’re accustomed to seeing you?

MR: During rehearsal we talked a lot about the erotic scenes in the movie, and about what intimacy is. And about grief and violence — as many ideas as this movie contains.

Q: How would you describe the sexual relationship between your character, Frannie, and the tough homicide detective played by Mark Ruffalo?

MR: Their sex is not coy. It’s very frank, and very much about revealing themselves to each other.

Q: Do you share Frannie’s fascination with poetry?

MR: I always have. I was definitely encouraged by Jane. When we started the movie, she hooked me up with a poetry professor at NYU. And Jane and I read poems together in the mornings during rehearsal.

Q: You talked earlier about your affinity for making films in New York City. What is it about the place that attracts you?

MR: I’m from (the area). I always feel that my soul is lined up in all the right ways in New York. I love the people, and the availability of experience. It’s endlessly interesting to me. I could just talk for another 20 minutes about that.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/103103-12_01.jpg)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 31, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/103103.pdf?ref=smdp.com)