The Real Reason Meg Ryan's Career Was Ruined
Lots of successful actors have become directors, including Ron Howard, Warren Beatty, and, yes, Meg Ryan. While most directors either seek out that track from early on, others are actors who got "promoted" to the job. Ryan falls into the latter category, and it doesn't seem to be the career pivot she may have expected.
In 2015, Ryan released her directorial debut Ithaca, a World War II homefront drama based on William Saroyan's 1943 novel The Human Comedy. It's about a widowed mother of four whose oldest son gets drafted, leaving the next-oldest son to find work as a messenger. That son then delivers telegrams to the residents of Ithaca, N.Y., giving many of them notices that their relatives died in the war. Ryan also starred as the mother in this movie.
Ryan chose to direct the movie for very personal reasons — "As a mom, I could really relate to the material," she told Vanity Fair. — but audiences and critics didn't share her enthusiasm. With a 13% on Rotten Tomatoes, and a grand total of $19,692 from straight-to-video sales, it's going to be tough for Ryan to find herself in the director's chair ever again.
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