Courtesy of Gersh
Americas sweetheart? Actress Meg Ryan claims she never wanted that title.
Speaking in a one-on-one conversation with Gwyneth Paltrow at her In Goop Health conference in Culver City, California, Ryan claimed the spotlight generated by her Sleepless in Seattle performance was overwhelming and caused her to retreat from show business after a few more film roles.
“You know, I never wanted to be an actress,” Ryan said. “The whole idea of being a famous person, the whole thing, I felt like a witness to. I didnt feel exactly in it. And I think that was a really good thing. Because I felt like a student of it in a way, that I was watching it (unfold) in an anthropological way.”
Ryan told Paltrow, “When you get labeled anything, like Americas Sweetheart – I didnt even know what that meant. It doesnt necessarily imply that youre smart or sexual or complicated or anything. Its a label. And what can a label do but guess at you?”
Although Ryan appeared in such films as 1998s City of Angels and 2000s Proof of Life, she called that period, “a really reactive time. Which is kind of why I stepped away about 10 years ago.”
Paltrow asked Ryan about the #MeToo movement and whether she experienced harassment in her career. “I dont have a big, bad story,” Ryan said. “Success, which happened fairly early for me, is like an iron bubble around you. So I was really lucky.”
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