Meg Ryan turns 60: the most famous orgasm, a difficult love and the fall after a romance that the public resisted

Meg Ryan turns 60. The actress who dazzled thirty years ago; the one that participated, in a short time, in three films that became immediate classics ; the one that revitalized the romantic comedy; the one that starred in the most famous orgasm in cinema; the one who was punished by the public for dating the wrong man (they considered); the one who saw her career slip away while others judged her. 

Her success, which seemed never to end, collided with the moral rigidity of an era, against her arbitrariness, the day she did what she wanted and did not act like a scripted character.

When she became the queen of romantic comedy, with that sprint of hits of the late eighties and early nineties, she was referred to as “The Bride of America” ​​( American Sweetheart ), an uncertain but somewhat flattering scepter that – As in boxing the Great White Hope- was held by several throughout the decades.

But before her movie explosion, Meg Ryan was literally America’s Bride. In 1982 he began to act in As The World Turns, a telenovela that ran for 54 years, from 1956 to 2010. 

The second most watched episode in the show’s history was when Betsy, the character played by Meg, got married.The rating indicated that this episode was seen by twenty million people. It only lasted two years on the show. The producers discovered it and wanted it for more ambitious projects.

She got small roles in various films but did not get the opportunity he expected. He participated in Top Gun, Armed and Dangerous and Killed on Arrival.

The big leap came when Molly Ringwald, the young actress of the second half of the eighties, turned down the role in When Harry Met Sally. 

Nora Ephron and Rob Reiner trusted her. Chemistry with Billy Crystal ensued and the film marked the renaissance of the romantic comedy.

That Sally would immediately identify with Meg and the attributes of the character all transferred to the actress: nice, somewhat distracted, charming, intelligent and opinionated.

No one can doubt that the most memorable moment of the comedy is Meg Ryan’s faked orgasm in the restaurant surrounded by hundreds of people. If it will be remembered for any scene, it will be for that.

In recent years, the changes in the actress’s appearance have been surprising. That made people talk about her again. The effects of cosmetic surgeries on her face were almost unanimously condemned . The hardened, asymmetrical, artificial features. The tender and restless gaze and the prodigious expressiveness died under the plastic surgeon’s scalpel. The fight against time made people stop recognizing her. Everyone knew, in fact, that it was Meg Ryan who was hiding behind that forced, fossilized smile. But not the Meg who had fallen in love with them, the one who at the end of the movie was going to stay with them.