Meg Ryan addresses ‘stupid’ criticism about her appearance

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Meg Ryan has addressed the constant tabloid fodder about her appearance, calling the criticism and comments “stupid”.

The What Happens Later star and director, 62, opened up about the difficulties of ageing in Hollywood in a wide-ranging interview with Glamour published on 30 November. This year alone, Ryan has been subjected to speculation about the way she looks – whether it’s rumours she’s undergone plastic surgery or reports describing her as looking “unrecognisable”.

Speaking to Glamour, the Sleepless in Seattle star revealed that she simply ignores the negative comments, but also took the opportunity to call out society’s obsession with age – especially for women in the spotlight.

“Our culture is so obsessed with youth,” she told the outlet. “As an old person now, I love my age. I love where I’m at. Ageing is not that terrifying. We’re all doing it. I wish someone had told me earlier: ‘Just relax. It is what it is. Don’t pay attention to the obstacles.’”

Back in May, Ryan was deemed “unrecognisable” during her “first public outing in six months” at a screening for Michael J Fox’s documentary, Still, in New York City. The description was quickly met with backlash, as many fans suggested it was “misogynistic”.

“A typical misogynist, ageist comment,” one person wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “She looks fabulous,” someone else said, while another person wrote: “Leave Meg Ryan alone.”

When it comes to the hurtful remarks, Ryan admitted that she “can’t pay attention to it” in order to protect her own mental health. “I can’t pay attention to it. I just can’t,” she said. “It’s not worth it. Of course that would hurt someone’s feelings, but there are so many more interesting things to think about. Meanness and hatred are just so stupid.”

Ryan skyrocketed to stardom in 1989 when she played the optimistic romantic lead, Sally Albright, in When Harry Met Sally. The actor was just 27 years old at the time, and went on to star in several romantic comedies like Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail. These days, Ryan explained that she’s no longer trying to please anyone, whether it’s Hollywood or her critics, and instead has chosen to be unapologetically herself.

“There’s a time in your teens and 20s where you’re trying on personalities to figure out who you are, who to be,” she said. “With age, you get to a place where you say what you mean without thinking about how it’s going to land. You just say what you want.”

Ryan made similar comments in 2015 during an interview with Net-A-Porter’s Porter magazine, noting that she doesn’t “pay a lot of attention” to plastic surgery speculation and that she “loves” her age.

“I love my age. I love my life right now. I love what I know about. I love the person I’ve become, the one I’ve evolved into. In my life I’ve been scrappy as hell, but I feel easy with things now. I think that comes with age,” she said at the time, adding: “We get stuck in these conversations about looks and hair colour and our roots. It’s interesting and funny for five minutes, but it’s not that interesting.”

The mother of two acknowledged that there’s “a lot of hatred in the world today” and that it’s “so easy to judge,” as she condemned her “haters”.

“Imagine being a hater, how stupid! My women friends are not sitting around talking about… well, sometimes there are conversations like that, but the people I value talk about kids growing up, what kind of world they are going into, what we are eating, what we are breathing,” Ryan said, per ABC News.

Ryan isn’t the first female celebrity to speak about society’s expectations for women as they grow older. Most recently, Oscar winner Anne Hathaway gave a candid response to fans who’ve told her that she looks “really good” for her age.

“I started in this business when I was 17 years old, in a very different era,” Hathaway said during an interview with Today in September. “There was this perception that there was going to be a cliff, and that cliff was a really young age. And the world’s changed since then.”

When asked how she responds to comments such as “Oh, you’re ageing gracefully” or “Oh, you look so good for your age,” Hathaway admitted that she doesn’t “think about age” and rather views age as “another word for living”.

“If people want to pay you a compliment, that’s nice. But also, whatever the hype is, I’m interested in what’s beyond the concept of hype,” she added.