Meg Ryan: Conversations about aging, looks & hair color are ‘not that interesting’

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Meg Ryan has a new interview in Porter Magazine, and it’s a puzzler. Meg comes right out and says that she doesn’t want to have a conversation about aging and what it’s like to be 54 years old in an industry that worships 22-year-olds. CB and I were debating if Meg’s comments were pointed, perhaps at Christie Brinkley, who went on a few very public dates with John Mellencamp, Meg’s one-time crusty lover. Brinkley has been on a promotional tour where all she talks about is aging and being beautiful and all of that. So… maybe Meg is taking a very subtle swipe. Or maybe Meg is trying to shut down the conversation about aging because she’s been f—king with her face for years and she looks like a totally different person (not unlike Christie Brinkley, come to think of it). Here are some highlights from Meg’s interview:

On conversations about aging: “There are more important conversations than how women look and how they are aging. 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. We get stuck in these conversations about looks and hair color and our roots. It’s interesting and funny for five minutes, but it’s not that interesting.”

So many haters: “There’s a lot of hatred in the world today—it’s so easy to judge. 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.”

On fame: “[It’s] definitely something I have had an evolving relationship to. I’m the kind of person who doesn’t want to be separated out…Fame is so cheap. Actually it’s not cheap, it’s privacy that is expensive.”

On social media: “Instagram and all that stuff is a lot of fun, but everybody has an audience now and that’s new. I think people can now relate to the idea of strangers knowing about them: sometimes that’s fine and sometimes you are misunderstood. Sometimes there’s misinformation.”

She’s still friends with her ex, John Mellencamp: “He’s the perfect kind of songwriter for this story. He’s world class. There’s not one speck of music that’s not his. He’s got some kind of magic touch.”

She’s happy: “I’m with my life right now in a way that I adore, with my kids and my world.”

[From E! News]

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for women telling other women that superficial conversations about hair and beauty are not the most important conversations we should be having. That being said, I gossip for a living, so I think Meg is being too cute by half. We know she tweaks the hell out of her face. We KNOW it. She knows we know it. We know she felt the same pangs of superficiality and vanity that millions of other women feel. So why not talk about it?

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Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet, Porter.

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79 Responses to “Meg Ryan: Conversations about aging, looks & hair color are ‘not that interesting’”

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  1. Cannibell says:

    She was adorable, and now she looks plastic. It’s sad. I would have loved to known what her real 54-year-old face looks like. (Note to Meg: This took less than a minute to type, so I’m way under my “Ryan 5” allotment.)

  2. minx says:

    Well, of course she doesn’t want to talk about it–she screwed up her face.

    • GoodNamesAllTaken says:

      Exactly. The price she paid for her fear of aging is visible to everyone already. What else is there to say?

      • Kitten says:

        …apparently nothing, as evidenced by this terrible interview.

        “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.”

        Is there some new alternative to oxygen that I haven’t heard about?

        “Fame is so cheap. Actually it’s not cheap, it’s privacy that is expensive.”

        Oh, deep thoughts because no one’s ever made THAT observation before.

        But seriously, has Meg Ryan always been this boring?

      • GoodNamesAllTaken says:

        Dying over here. The new alternative to oxygen. 😂😂😂😂

      • Azurea says:

        I think she’s referring to the toxic chemicals in the air & in the food we eat.

    • Denisemich says:

      Cheek implants should be banned. She is two procedures away from the cat-lady face

    • mary simon says:

      My first thought, exactly. She’s not some rebel against Hollywood’s vanity and impossible beauty standards – she’s one of the most blatant victims of it – second only to Melanie Griffith. Ironically, she probably would have aged beautifully without all the surgery.

    • perplexed says:

      Maybe she feels she wouldn’t have gone under the knife if she hadn’t let the shallow conversations affect her.

    • Jib says:

      Goodness gracious!!! I didn’t even know who she was!! She used to be so cute. If she had left her face alone, she would be cute with some wrinkles. Now, she looks like a bobble-head!! She is so skinny, with a Joker face. How sad, that she felt that she needed to do that.

      And thanks for saying what I’ve been saying, Kaiser. Brinkley has had times after surgeries when she wasn’t recognizable either!

  3. Nancy says:

    There is nothing she can do now about what she did except live with it. I’m quite sure she regrets her choices but can only move on. It seems obvious that she still has feelings for Mellencamp. For whatever reason I feel sorry for her today and won’t judge her, it’s her life.

    • Esmom says:

      My take on it exactly. It sounds like she’s achieved a measure of peace, hopefully it will prevent her from going under the knife again.

      I don’t know how old the photo of her in the white dress is but to me she looks pretty similar to her old self. You can see remnants of the old smile and twinkly eyes.

      • suze says:

        Her face has finally settled after years of looking like someone else.

        So she should leave it alone at this time.

    • Shannon says:

      The permanence ( is it a word?) is terrifying. I can’t imagine going under the knife not knowing exactly how it’s going to turn out. I would hate to live with that regret. I feel sorry for her, but also hope she’s realized what she’s done to herself.

  4. ell says:

    regardless of what she did to her face, which I’m sure she now regrets, i do see her point. it’s important for women in the business to speak about how growing older marginalises you, but at the same time why aren’t these women asked more interesting questions like their male counterparts? that is also part of the problem.

    • saywhatwhen says:

      Am thinking it’s because when you sit before male celebrities/stars the surgery is not so obvious/jarring and plentiful. The scary faces these women walk around with in Hollywood makes it an imperative for any reporter to ask about looks. The women are wearing their insecurities for all to see and people want to know about it—how does a funny, smart actor get to that point? I think the questions are valid.

      • Luca76 says:

        Mickey Rourke never will be asked about aging and what he’s done to his face for example and he looks just as bad as Meg Ryan.

      • ell says:

        imo that’s not it. it’s because women are always judged for their appearance, way more than men. if a woman has had surgery they ask her why, if one hasn’t they ask her why and what she thinks of the ones who do. as a woman you can never win. what about we stop caring what people do to their faces and start asking relevant questions? if women didn’t feel so pressured to look young they wouldn’t get those surgeries to begin with and the problem wouldn’t exist.

      • Naya says:

        Burt Reynolds was very jarring too but he didnt get these bs questions either. Nor have I ever heard Travolta or Nic Cage about balding insecurities or toupes even though they have both worn hilarious hair pieces.

      • LAK says:

        LUCA76: Mickey Rourke has been very open about his surgery. He doesn’t do many interviews these days, so people don’t remember that he has talked about his surgeries.

        His surgeries didn’t start from a point of being afraid of youth or trying to stay young. He started his surgeries to restore his face which had been completely ruined by his boxing career.

        He retired from Hollywood to become a boxer. That career didn’t pan out and when he quit it, his face had been ruined from all the punches to it.

        Unfortunately, the surgeon he used to reclaim his old face completely botched it, and Mickey sued him.

        He then underwent more surgery to fix the bad surgery. The end result is what you see.

        Mickey Rourke is perfectly aware that he ruined his own face, but it isn’t for the usual reasons most people assume. I wish people would remember that instead of lumping him with the vanity brigade of youth as practised by all of hollywood.

        Naya: Burt Reynolds talks about his surgery, or rather makes fun of it, in a recent Vanity fair interview.

      • Kitten says:

        The fact remains that despite their crazy-looking faces, Burt Reynolds and Mickey Rourke are still seen as “cool” by most dudes and by plenty of women as well whereas Courtney Cox and Meg Ryan are seen by both men and women alike as “sad and desperately clinging to their youth.”

        Also, I love Mickey Rourke. Thanks for the summary of what happened to him, LAK.

      • LAK says:

        Hey Kitten, I feel as though I’ve become a defender of Mickey Rourke’s surgery because I post this comment every single time, and still people talk about his surgery as if is part of the hollywood plastic youth Olympics.

        You make a very good point about his not being dragged by the media for his botched face in the same way that female actors are dragged, but I still feel it’s important to remember that his face is botched for a reason that isn’t about holding on to his youth like many female actresses.

        Burt Reynolds wa purely vanity and holding onto his youth, and we should make fun of that in the same way female actresses are made fun of.

        That said, if any of the female actors/celebrities had a good reason for their surgeries like he has, I would defend them too. Eg Iman.

      • Zwella Ingrid says:

        Burt Reynolds in the 70’s was the most amazing looking sexy man on the planet. Sigh. Getting old sucks.

    • Carol says:

      @ell Exactly. I don’t think there is anything wrong with what Meg said. I think she is just pointing out that women of a certain age get asked about being older and their looks constantly while men don’t get asked those questions quite as much.

  5. Reine_Didon says:

    Her face looks frozen plastic even though she’s smiling ! How sad.
    But I am 100% with her. Talking fashion hair and clothes is only fun for 5 min. Unless you really lead an empty life.

    • anna says:

      i disagree. every topic is just as interesting as the people discussing it.

    • vauvert says:

      Agree! I think some fashion talk is fine but if that is all the conversation is limited to – how utterly boring. Yes, clothes represent a facet of who we are. Sure, fashion choices, particularly for the famous, make a statement (which nowadays seems to be “I am too stupid to dress myself or pay for my clothes, so I will wear whatever dumb things a company gives me for free”). After that, there are so many more interesting topics that affect our lives in a meaningful way….

    • Naya says:

      Agreed. Spending more than a casual few minutes on some topics makes me think you are either very daft or very superficial.

  6. Shambles says:

    She comes off really smug and self righteous, imo. Sorry that you’re upset about your bad plastic surgery, but the attitude is very off-putting.

  7. anna says:

    so all is hunky dory in meg-world. didn’t you hear how happy she is? she is sooo happy.

  8. J says:

    I saw her Thanksgiving weekend strolling around town on Martha’s Vineyard. She was bundled up shopping with her daughter. She clearly didn’t want to be recognized and either nobody recognized her or they just left her alone, but her voice is ingrained in my mind from watching you’ve got mail every damn time it is on tv.

    • Rae says:

      I just watched it the other night- I have it on my computer, so whip it on every so often. I love it.

      She was so pretty back then, I wish she hadn’t touched her face.

      • Zwella Ingrid says:

        I loved her in French Kiss. She was a very pretty woman back then, but we all age, and some of us worse than others. Of course her surgery choices made her aging process much worse.

  9. cleveland girl says:

    I am sorry, but in some of those pics she looks like a mental patient with an eating disorder

    • holly hobby says:

      Exactly. She has lollipop head. Meg does care about her looks because she’s dieting to the point where her head is bigger than her body!

      • tigerlily says:

        Absolutely she cares! If she’d allowed herself to gain a few pounds she may not have felt compelled to feck up her face with fillers, implants and whatever the h*ll else she has in there. A few additional pounds once you are over 40ish will fill out your fine lines and give your face fullness. I think it was Catherine Deneuve who said at a certain age a woman has to choose face vs body. Keep the skinny body and look like a skaggy lollypop; add a few pounds and look normal and beautiful

      • trace says:

        @tigerlily – exactly and it’s not just her face that would benefit, her bones would appreciate it too as she could be at risk for low bone density

  10. Josefina says:

    Ha, funny she’s talking about this. Whenever I see Meg Ryan the only thing that comes to mind is she used to be SO pretty. Her looks, that’s all I think of. Though in my defense, she wasn’t the Bette Davis of her generation, so it’s not like there’s actually more to remember.

  11. Barrett says:

    Is her top lip smaller again? Or is it the picture?

    By not wanting to discuss it, she may saying she has the wisdom to see that getting obsessed w beauty and youth really messed her up in her 40s and she has learned a lesson.

  12. Ben Ding-Ovr says:

    How convenient.
    #deflecting

  13. Chelly says:

    Shes protesting A LOT about how happy she is with her life & loving her age while these pics are telling of a much different (more realistic) story.

  14. Loo says:

    I feel sorry for Meg Ryan. I actually don’t care if people get plastic surgery, I don’t think that it is right or wrong but one thing that bothers me is way, way too much plastic surgery on the face. Too much plastic surgery never makes people look younger, never.

    What happened to just having little tweaks here and there? Why do these women need a whole other face?

  15. lassie says:

    ” John Mellencamp, Meg’s one-time crusty lover. ” This is the most apt description of Mellencamp ever.

  16. littlemissnaughty says:

    Is she promoting something?

    I love her, I really do. She’s in some of my favorite movies and while I don’t think she’s the world’s greatest actress, she has that watchable quality that you need for romcoms. But my god, her face. This cannot be considered preferable to wrinkles.

  17. Size Does Matter says:

    Did she disappear for a while to recover/settle from the work she’s had done? Or because the roles stopped coming? I can’t remember the last movie she did. Was it something about boxing? Would love to see her make a comeback.

    • mary simon says:

      She’s not coming back any more than her surgery sister, Melanie Griffith, is coming back. It’s been over for both of them for a while. It would not be enjoyable to look at those botched faces on the big screen for two hours.

      • holly hobby says:

        Yeah I think the combination of age and bad plastic surgery made Meg and Melanie unemployable. Courtney Cox is a close third. Renee Zellweger and Nicole Kidman behind them. Please stop butchering your faces, ladies.

  18. jessoutwest says:

    A woman’s (or anyone’s ) attitude on aging, especially in the limelight, is personal and sometimes complicated. Maybe she was just not in the mood to talk about it.unless that was the planned focus of the interview I don’t blame her. It’s kind of like asking someone to discuss their weight.

  19. Fergus says:

    I’m curious about what Sandra Bullock has done differently to make her work look better than Meg’s? SB obviously has fillers and botox–but also a face lift (I know about the earlier nose job)? How do her fillers and botox look better than most? Clearly she’s had a face lift (no jowls, no under eye hollows, no dropped cheek fat pads, no hooded eyes–all very typical aging), but is that all? What about cheek implants? And was it her bone structure that allowed it to look more natural? How has she avoided that “filler face” look when she clearly uses fillers (because otherwise she’d have marionette lines and nasal-labial folds)? Any body have any thoughts?

    • littlemissnaughty says:

      Maybe she didn’t overdo it? I doubt she’s had a lot of invasive stuff done to be honest. She looks like she uses every non-invasive procedure under the sun but if she’s had fillers, she’s had much less injected and/or has reacted better to them. I find the thought of fillers horrifying. More horrifying than surgery because you never know what that stuff will do to your tissue. And you can’t reverse it. So I guess she’s had a better doctor and didn’t go crazy? And not everyone gets marionette lines. My mom is 65 and has none.

      • Fergus says:

        It’s definitely more than fillers. She has no jowls, which is impossible at that age with that jaw line. And she doesn’t have the fat chin/inflated face look of someone who has fillers done in the jowls. Plus her cheek fat pads are still high and there’s no drop at all. There are definitely fillers under her eyes. I think you’re right about not over doing it. I also think she has naturally thick skin so the filler isn’t as obvious as it is under thinner skin. She does over do the botox on her forehead. But I have to disagree with the non-invasive comment. I think it’s the non-invasive stuff–doing a lot of it so you don’t do the invasive stuff–that makes one look freakish. A subtle face lift is actually more natural looking, so I’m guess that’s what she had done in addition to subtle fillers (and not so subtle botox).

        You’re mom is very lucky! 🙂

      • littlemissnaughty says:

        My mom is super lucky. Smoked for decades, too. I do not have her skin though, I really have to take care of it.

  20. crazydaisy says:

    I thought she was Melanie Griffith.

  21. Ally8 says:

    For a long while, she was a terrific comedienne in the great Hollywood tradition of banter movies. That takes great timing and skill with dialogue and body language, which few possess (as the elephant graveyard of terrible rom-coms will attests.) While aging is clearly an impediment to working in Hollywood, however, so is messing with your face to the point where it becomes this distracting onscreen.

    I’m still confused about why she did it. As I recall, she did a series of gritty movies (Proof of Life, Against the Ropes, In the Cut) in a bid to get away from an “America’s sweetheart” image she claimed to loathe, but then apparently felt the need to get her face done to preserve that sweetheart youthful image? Wouldn’t aging naturally have ensured more serious, substantial roles going forward?

  22. georgia says:

    WHAT. HAPPENED. TO. HER. EYEBROWS.

    • tealily says:

      Her eyebrows have ALWAYS been terrible. Everyone on here talking about how she used to be a great beauty… I never did see it because I could never see past the middle-school style plucked brows!!

      • Anon33 says:

        OMG. Her brows in You’ve Got Mail are TRAGIC. It was a GD Hollywood movie and they couldn’t make them even?!? I’ve always noticed her bad brows.

  23. CatJ says:

    The new face reminds me of Olivia Newton John, (who by the way, has also overdone the fillers….)

  24. Cindy says:

    I am starting to develop a theory about plastic surgery, and how in the end, it starts looking freakish. The three women that come to mind are Cox, Meg, and Madonna. Okay, so the women who are most invested in fixing any signs of aging, start getting little tweaks here and there in their late thirties. At this point they still look beautiful and pretty natural. In their early forties, as aging naturally progresses, the surgery/tweaks increase. Now, although they look like they have had something done, it still looks good, but this is where I think things start to go wrong. Because they still look so pretty, they think they can just keep tweaking to match every sign of aging and get away with it indefenitaly. By 50, it looks freaky because 50 is the age where we all, in my opinion (I am 43), are going to look our age. Of coarse you can look good for your age if you are healthy, eat well, etc., but you *will* look 50. So this is when these women start looking freaky. Their actual age combined with the conviction that they can “fix” every little thing, as ey did I their forties, no longer works. And the result is the Madonna, cox, Meg look.

  25. serena says:

    She’s delusional. Yes there are more important conversations, but this is pretty important too and she is just shoving it away because it doesn’t agree with her. Whatever, since you don’t wanna talk about it, we can all see on your face what you think about it.
    It’s not fun because it burns her.. Well, not that it’s supposed to be fun at all, but talking about ageism and women IS freaking important.

    • april says:

      I agree. If her procedures had turned out well like Christie Brinkley, this would be an entirely different conversation. Some women do very well with plastic surgery and sadly some don’t. However, I think it’s unfair to criticize those whose procedures didn’t turn out well. It’s bad enough that it didn’t turn out well and to have the public insult you would be hard to deal with. These women did not intend to have bad work done. On the other hand, we compliment the ones who have had work done and look great. So whether you have procedures done or not, you are judged if you don’t look good for your age.

      • Janis says:

        Interesting that you mentioned Christie Brinkley, whose plastic surgery results look good. Hasn’t John Mellencamp, her “former crusty ex-lover” been spending a lot of time with Christie? Call me crazy but it seems that Meg’s broken heart is at the root of this statement. She’s feeling envious, vulnerable and even more insecure since her breakup IMO.

      • serena says:

        I’m not judging her bad plastic surgery, though it’s so obvious you can not talk about it, but her shifting the conversation because she’s afraid to answer to it.

  26. JenniferJustice says:

    So according to Meg Ryan, talking about aging and beauty is shallow, but talking about dieting is not? Okaaaaay…..

    And, yes, I see her comments as a not even subtle dig at Brinkley. Which does no favors for Meg. Just makes her come off as jealous and immature.

  27. iheartgossip says:

    She totally ruined her looks. Very sad. She must be completely insecure.

  28. emma says:

    Maybe because she was so obsessed with fading beauty for so long and she’s finally come out of that dark place. She doesn’t want to talk about it anymore.

  29. Dee says:

    Meg was so adorable with her precious pug-nose and sparkly blue eyes. She ruined her face. So sad…..

  30. lisa says:

    Millions of people love Meg Ryan–I adore her. You can watch those movies today and they’re still better than any of the rom coms today. Total Class–very funny and gorgeous. The way people judge women of a certain age is criminal.

  31. Eric Kane says:

    ” 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.”

    The 1 thing she left off that list of “loves” is “the way I look.” What she doesn’t say speaks volumes.

  32. bermudashortz says:

    Well, her hairdo is really cute. Me wants it.

  33. Dude says:

    Haha, real convenient for a fame and image-obsessed hasbeen, who ruined her face due to her own vanity, to now be above all of that talk. Used to love her, she was the sweet all-American gal. Reality is she is a serial homewrecker and just another vane Hollywood bimbo.