An Off-Screen Presence The Meg Ryan In Real Life Isn’t Much Different Than The Meg Ryan Up On The Screen (Except Smarter)

Meg Ryan comes bouncing out of the bedroom of her hotel suite and says, “My makeup people are still asleep.”

Is that some sort of apology? Meg Ryan and makeup?! C’mon!

In a long-sleeved white T-shirt, baggy linen pants and Doc Martens, Ryan looks and acts like a perky tomboy even early on a Sunday morning. Her eyes twinkle in Caribbean blue; her smile is wide and easy; her short blond hair is tousled - just like in the movies.

And during our talk, before she launches into a full day of interviews promoting her new film, “French Kiss,” Ryan effortlessly projects the same persona that makes her so engaging on screen - pure affability, with a touch of confusion about certain things (in this case, why a certain monthly magazine deems her personal life to be of such great interest).

But then, everyone who’s worked with Ryan says the same thing: “What you see on screen is more or less what you get in real life.” In this case, everyone might just be right.

It’s certainly those same winsome qualities that radiate through “French Kiss,” which finds the 33-year-old actress back on her prototypical romantic-comedy turf. Part French farce, part ‘40s-vintage Hollywood romantic comedy, the movie is about Kate, a young American woman whose fiance, Charlie (Timothy Hutton), dumps her after falling madly in love with a statuesque French brunette while on a business trip in Paris. Kate, who didn’t accompany Charlie because of her fear of flying, decides to take the bull by the horns and jets off to the City of Lights to get Charlie back. Sitting next to Kate on the flight over is a Frenchman, Luc (Kevin Kline), who instantaneously gets under Kate’s skin. Her odd-coupling with Luc precipitates classic romantic-comedy sequences as he helps her win Charlie back.

If the role of Kate seems tailor-made for Ryan, that’s because it was. The film was made in association with Prufrock Pictures, Ryan’s production company, which makes the actress one of the film’s co-producers as well.

Although Ryan at one point laughs and calls her co-producing credit “the biggest joke,” director Lawrence Kasdan (“The Big Chill,” “Grand Canyon”) says, “Make no mistake about it: This movie happened because of Meg Ryan. The script” - by first-timer Adam Brooks - “was written for her, and the whole movie came together in a week. I read the original script for the first time exactly a year ago and it will be in movie theaters (Friday). That’s very unusual - and that’s all because of Meg.”

There are several sequences (the cut-off-in-mid-motion high-five, the lactose-intolerant episode, the imitation of Luc as a bitter, hunched-over old man) that were not in the script, but were developed by Ryan in rehearsals or in front of the camera. Says costar Kline, “She likes to play. She’s the last person to say, ‘OK, let’s just say the line and do it already.’ She has very good comedic instincts. I like nothing more than to be surprised by another actor. And Meg surprised me.”

Ryan, who was born and raised in Connecticut, first surprised a whole lot of people at the age of 28 with her on-screen ad-lib of how a woman can fake an orgasm in “When Harry Met Sally …” (1989). That Rob Reiner film, in which she costarred with Billy Crystal, propelled Ryan to stardom.

But for the record, Ryan actually made her big-screen debut when she was a teenager: She played Candice Bergen’s daughter in “Rich and Famous” (1981). Then came commercial work and a two-year stint on the soap opera “As the World Turns,” followed eventually by a supporting role in the 1986 “Top Gun.”

In 1987, she had a featured role in the comedy “Innerspace,” on the set of which she met her future husband, actor Dennis Quaid. Soon after giving birth to a son, Jack, she scored her second big hit in Nora Ephron’s “Sleepless in Seattle” (1993), opposite Tom Hanks.

Despite those successes, it’s been a little frustrating for Ryan that audiences haven’t responded when she’s tried her hand at drama. She did impress critics with her performance as an alcoholic in last year’s “When a Man Loves a Woman,” and the movie was moderately successful - but many in the industry credited the studio for slyly marketing it as a quintessential Meg Ryan romance.

Ryan will be seen later this fall in the period serio-comic drama “Restoration,” which she actually finished before starting “French Kiss.” Right now, she is looking forward to a break: “I’m going to sleep for three weeks.”

But Prufrock Pictures already has several ideas in development, and Ryan is hoping that one in particular, “The Women,” will happen first. Jodie Foster and Julia Roberts are also involved in the project, which will be a very loose updating of the 1939 George Cukor comedy that starred Joan Crawford, Norma Shearer and Rosalind Russell.

Despite her status as one of Hollywood’s most bankable actresses, it’s hard to imagine Ryan lording it over anyone, even if she does run her own production company. Yet it’s also obvious that she didn’t get where she is just by being perky and affable. When pressed to say what she thinks is the biggest misconception about her, Ryan answers this way: “Well, every now and then someone says something like, ‘Hey, you’re really smart!’ You know, like it’s this big surprise. That’s sort of funny. But what am I going to do, run around and talk and ‘act smart’ to counter whatever perception might be out there?”