(MENAFN- Gulf Times) To begin with, she did not mean to become a movie star. Today, she is one of the biggest. And again, she says she did not mean to be a director yet she has done it. The world would hope Meg Ryan finds the same career success here that she found in acting.
With her directorial debut, Ithaca, she makes her intentions clear. The delicate wide-eyed blonde from some of Hollywood's best romantic comedies of the modern era made her first appearance in town by bringing a period drama to Doha Film Institute's Ajyal Youth Film Festival 2016.
She was the guest of honour at the closing ceremony of the film festival that recently concluded after showcasing some very powerful movies from around the world for six days.
Based on William Saroyan's 1943 novel The Human Comedy, Ithaca is a coming-of-age film sweetly interwoven featuring Ryan's own son, 24-year-old Jack Quaid. The film stars Ryan herself in the role of Mrs Macauley and reunites her with Tom Hanks.
The other stars include Alex Neustaedter, Jack Quaid, Sam Shepard and Hamish Linklater. The film was released in September this year and was screened here at Ajyal.
The star of movies like When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, and You've Got Mail, has made a powerful statement with Ithaca, which she says, is a story she personally wanted to tell.
'I didn't think that I wanted to direct but this story came along. I read the book when my son was young (about 8). I discovered that as a mother, it was a story that I could tell; more than as an actor or as somebody working in the movie business, says Ryan, speaking to a group of journalists prior to her appearance at the Ajyal closing ceremony.
Set in 1942, the movie shows Homer Macauley (Alex Neustaedter) as a boy determined to be the best and fastest bicycle telegraph messenger of his city. His older brother, Marcus (Jack Quaid), along with most of the young boys of the city, has gone to war, leaving the families worried.
His father died recently and the boy has to take care of his widowed mother (Meg Ryan), his older sister and his four-year-old brother. Homer becomes the only telegraph messenger of the city, delivering the letters that bring messages of love, wishes, pain and death, hoping that one of them announces the return of his brother.
'The protagonist to me is a moving little character in that all he really wants is this impossible thing which is to make sure that everyone he loves never gets hurt. I found that as a very compelling story. And I love the era, the 1940s America and I just love the analogue nature of it, says Ryan with her signature bubbly smile.
And she also loved in the story how imperfect the adults are. Life presents very complicated questions and they do not really all have perfect answers to that.
But what was more challenging for Ryan, acting or directing or yet doing both at the same time?
'I learned more about acting by directing a movie. I learned more about acting in one 23-day period than in all the movies that I did because I recognised that all the movies (that I did) were in the movie, (but) all worked so differently, says the actor-turned-director.
'The real variable on a set is an actor besides the weather (chuckles). They bring something to life. Then, there were so many children in the movie who had never worked before and Sam Shepard worked differently than Hamish, and the teenagers worked differently, says Ryan.
She says what the actors are asked to do is to come to a set and bring life to a moment and the crew awaits them. They wait for this magical moment, when you can provide as many things as you can for an actor and then you hope that they can bring it to life.
And they even hope the same. And that is a very different job than being a conductor with an overall view of all the artistes on the set have to do.
'The great joy of being an actor is that you enjoy the luxury of having only one subjective emotional story to be responsible for. And a great joy being a director is to navigate and conduct all the different types of artistes on the set, says the Ithaca director.
Ryan says she would love to direct again but perhaps, not herself in the movie again.
'Because to all my crew I had to ask everybody, was that the right way? she laughs, recalling directing herself in Ithaca. And the last scene, in particular, where Mrs Macauley had to receive the bad news standing at the doorsteps of her house.
'And all I could think of was: why is that crane moving very slowly; the camera is not moving at the right speed (laughs). So that is very distracting, says Ryan.
She did not find it difficult working with her real son in the movie. Jack, she says, is hard working and by the time he came to do the movie, he had already worked on multiple projects.
Responding to a question about being open to any future collaboration with DFI, Ryan says she is an open collaborator. 'I am a filmmaker and film is we do, says Ryan, adding that she was excited to be in Doha. She has been in the region before though and she says she was amazed to see the difference between then and now. 'Somebody showed me the pictures of Sheraton from 20 years and now, and it is extraordinary. And we went to the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA), it was perfect. I think so far I have seen so many great things, says the actor.
However, she says if she had to stay any longer it would be at the Souq, and out in the desert or may be on a camel.
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