Meg Ryan
America's Sweetheart
Meg Ryan, 46, has always had mixed feelings about the label "America's Sweetheart" -- a term dreamed up by Nora Ephron around the time of When Harry Met Sally, which Ephron wrote. In fact, the actress spent the better part of the 1990s as a beloved comic heroine, yet playing the role of America's Sweetheart left Ryan a bit bemused. "...I understood it was a compliment about being lovable...but it also felt like ideas were being projected onto me that had nothing to do with me. The girl next door to what? I never felt like a very conventional person."
Public Pain
Ryan's freedom from conventional values revealed itself when she began an affair in 2000 with Russell Crowe, her co-star in Proof of Life, as her nine-year marriage to Dennis Quaid was falling apart. Suddenly, much of the enormous public affection for her turned to anger, and everything was affected: her image, her career, her sense of self. "It was a great story," she says. "But what wasn't in the story was the reality of my marriage..." And what was the reality? After a pause, Ryan says quietly, "Dennis was not faithful to me for a long time, and that was very painful..."
A Complicated Story
This is surprising -- the story splashed across magazine covers at the time cast her as the cheater. "I think when things get played out that simply in black-and-white, it makes people feel good... The tabloid culture can't tell a complicated story." But Ryan is committed to the complicated story. She wasn't the stereotypical long-suffering wife, nor was Quaid a monster. Meg is adamant: "I am not a victim. I was there. I was in that marriage for a really long time."
Read more of Meg Ryan's interview on InStyle.com.
Also on InStyle.com
Film Fashion: The style of 'The Women'
Transformation: Watch Meg Ryan go from girl next door to leading lady
From Soaps to Superstardom: See where Meg Ryan, Brad Pitt and many more A-listers got their showbiz starts
