Meg Ryan isn't keen to discuss her career, let alone her change of image, but she agreed to bare her soul on the plight of the modern female. Steve Pratt reports.

SIMULATING an orgasm in a deli may be the scene for which most people remember Meg Ryan, but that did nothing to dent her nice girl image as the queen of romantic comedies. It took her high profile affair with her Proof Of Life co-star Russell Crowe, followed by the break-up of her marriage to actor Dennis Quaid, to make people think of her in a different light.

Her latest movie, the psychological thriller In The Cut, puts the nail in the coffin of her image as America's Sweetheart. She strips off for full frontal nudity and engages in explicit sex scenes as a lonely, single New York writing professor embarking on an affair with the detective investigating a murder.

Ryan herself is reluctant to put too much emphasis on this obvious career change in the film directed by Jane Campion, who made The Pianist. As Ryan has proved on previous occasions, she's never entirely happy talking about herself. She didn't consider she was doing anything courageous by taking the role of Frannie. "I felt I was in such sure hands that I didn't feel that it needed some extreme amount of bravery on my part to trust Jane," she says.

"I loved the script, and I loved her sensibility. I do think that the character is extremely brave. We talk about her often as a warrior, and she's a very unlikely person to risk her heart for a guy. I thought that was the thing that I felt needed a lot of bravery to do."

She felt "very taken care of" in the intimate scenes with co-star Mark Ruffalo. "It's not a day you look forward to when you see it coming up in the schedule," she admits. "We did it in the very last couple of days, but in the end it was a really protective environment, and it was very choreographed. We knew about every shot and every angle."

There were no worries about how viewers would react to these scenes. "I'm not into any reaction to whatever idea of me is out there. I don't really think about it that much, truthfully," she says.

Contrary to what outsiders may think, the mood on the set didn't reflect the edgy, downbeat feel of the story. "I don't think it's true that comedies are gloomy and dramas are happy, necessarily. We had a really happy set, it was hilarious really," says Ryan.

One aspect of the character gave the star of When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless In Seattle new-found freedom - thanks to a change of hairstyle. Ryan says the change of her normal look was "organic", the result of walking around New York and observing people.

"Everything really contributes to the performance. I dyed my hair, and I was able to walk around New York and nobody said, 'Hi' or anything, and that hadn't happened in quite a while. That was liberating,".

The script was different to anything else she receives. In fact, Nicole Kidman had purchased the rights to Susanna Moore's novel and intended to star in it herself. When clashing schedules forced her to pull out, Ryan entered the frame.

Both she and Campion welcomed the chance to make a film reflecting situations facing the modern female "who are dealing with both their independence and the idea that their lives are built around finding and satisfying the romantic models we grew up with," according to the director.

"The story gives us an opportunity to see how that model falls short for us, and creates an enormous amount of grief, and how women postpone their life in a way, thinking that if they're not with a partner then it doesn't really count. They're an unloved person, an unloved woman still searching for her prince."

Ryan adds that it's interesting to have the film as a forum for discussion because if such feelings are unexpressed, it's even more frustrating.

"I know a lot of my friends who have seen the movie so deeply relate to that aspect, that the romantic myths don't apply to them, and how heartbreaking that can feel if you feel alone with that idea," she says.

"Frannie has a sadness because the western notion of happily ever after romance has passed her by. A lot of people feel that everybody else is having some big experience of love, except you, but it's just not true.

"By the end, I felt I really knew who Frannie was. To me, she's like a woman's subconscious inner world come to life. She's a very deep character and the events of this story rock her to her very soul."

The tone may be darker and the sex steamier but Frannie and her character in When Harry Met Sally do have one thing in common - Ryan has to simulate an orgasm in both movies. So was it easier to do in a diner sitting opposite Billy Crystal or in the bedroom with Ruffalo?

"It's harder to fake it in a deli than in a controlled environment with everything choreographed in In The Cut," she replies.

* In The Cut (18) opens in cinemas tomorrow

Published: 30/10/2003