Meg Ryan’s Awkward 2003 Interview Has Fans Calling Out The Host’s Insulting Treatment Of Her

Film aficionados will probably remember Meg Ryan from her ’90s hits such as Sleepless in Seattle and Joe Versus the Volcano alongside America’s dad, Tom Hanks. Well, her off-screen reputation didn’t stay as squeaky clean, especially following her face-to-face with Parkinson, affectionately known to British TV viewer as “Parky.” But what could have gone so wrong between them that viewers still remember well over a decade later? 

The interview started out bad and only got worse as the two performed a passive-aggressive duel of words ending in stony silence. Not even the other guests could break the tension! Since that day Parkinson has revisited the moment time and again — including with other journalists — to try to deconstruct exactly where it all went wrong. 

Is it a coincidence that the exchange occurred during a difficult moment in Ryan’s life? Things weren’t going well for her romantically, and what’s more, the film she was ostensibly there to promote was 2003’s In the Cut. For those of you out of the loop, the thriller’s widely considered a critical flop. 

Although Ryan has played other parts since that fateful film, many believe it marked the end of the most successful phase of her career. You could even argue that her cringy conversation with Parkinson may have contributed. Yet there are those who believe her blemished reputation may not have even been Ryan’s fault. At least, not entirely.

You see, when the interview first screened, many viewers considered Ryan’s responses and body language to be pretty one-sided. But since then, more information has surfaced that paints their conversation in a different light. Regardless, even at the time watchers were divided over who was actually the wronged party. 

In 2006 a fan wrote, “Having just watched the interview on YouTube, it seems apparent to me that it was Parkinson who was being rude, not Ryan. It's hardly her fault that the man decided to go on the offensive from the start and enforce his prudish ‘morals’ on her.”

“Totally agree,” another replied. “I have also seen the video for the first time, and I’m outraged and embarrassed by Parkinson. Until now, I’d always assumed from the editing footage shown on British TV and media… that it was Meg Ryan who was rude, not Parkinson. He was extremely harsh to her, criticizing her life, personality, and especially the film.”

But of course, every argument has two sides. Parkinson still had supporters blaming Ryan’s frosty reception squarely on the actress. A 2007 comment read, “Why are people rewriting this article to make it more sympathetic towards Ryan? I’ve seen the interview, I saw it live on TV the day it aired and Meg Ryan was absolutely rude.”

“She is supposed to be a professional,” the fan continued. “She’s an actress, couldn’t she act interested?” The third camp of people chose neither side, taking the view that Parkinson and Ryan shared the blame. A 2007 viewer explained, “Quite frankly, I thought that they were both quite rude to one another.”

The real question is, has time changed any of these opinions? After all, people are still talking about the incident today, especially since new information has made the subject relevant again. If comments about the interview posted on BBC Studio’s YouTube channel are anything to go by, people are more sympathetic to Ryan than they originally were. 

A viewer wrote in 2021, “Like many of the post[er]s here, I’d never actually watched the interview [all] the way through, and was always under the impression that Meg was at fault. Shows what influence the BBC have.” Meanwhile, a 2020 commenter said, “I’ve seen the whole interview, strange that it’s nowhere to be seen.” 

“Initially, Meg gives clear, well-thought-out answers and comes across as very intelligent,” the viewer continued. “Parkinson is truly awful to her.” Yet Parkinson revealed he and Ryan were in conflict even before the interview aired, as website thejournal.ie reported in 2016. He claimed they didn’t get on from the moment they met. 

The journalist described how he met Ryan in her dressing room to introduce himself prior to the interview. Apparently, Ryan kept her entourage at the room’s far side and facing away from her. “I started looking at her and thought, ‘I don’t like you very much,’” Parkinson said. “And she was looking at me thinking, ‘I don’t like you very much.’” 

Parkinson also admitted he didn’t appreciate the way Ryan reacted to his other guests. He told newspaper the Daily Mirror in 2016 how she had ignored them. “But the thing that really did it,” Parkinson recalled, “was I had on the guest beforehand, and she was sitting behind the set watching it on a monitor there, so she knew damn well what was going on.”

Parkinson went on to call her “a twerp” and cited her romantic life as a possible reason for their clash. He explained, “Russell Crowe had walked out on her so that didn’t help her mood. And apart from which, she’s one of those kinds of actresses who [is] a neurotic.” 

By Parkinson’s reports, the interview was fated to crash from the beginning. So is the true story behind the disastrous interview so one-sided? You’d think so from the acclaimed journalist’s past remarks, informed by his popular career as a TV show host and the breadth of his experience. 

Parkinson, who Sky News called “the chat-show king,” has a history in television spanning 800 shows with roughly 2,000 televised interviews under his belt. His infamous clash with Ryan even happened on the show Parkinson, named after himself. It ran from 1971 right up to 2007 and won four awards, including a BAFTA. 

Ryan’s interview isn’t the only controversy emerging from the Parkinson recordings, either. For example, his 1975 interview with Helen Mirren hasn’t aged well. She was working for the Royal Shakespeare Company at the time, but the exchange was less about her acting credentials and more about how physically attractive she was. 

From the start, Parkinson introduced Mirren as the “sex queen” of the company. He also questioned whether Mirren’s “physical attributes” — clearly implying her breasts — prevented the audience from taking her seriously. The actress told Flaunt magazine in 2009 that she was the one who was criticized as “argumentative” for the conversation, while her host walked away untarnished.

Mirren told Flaunt, “I don’t want to diss Michael, but he did blow it that once because, you know, he didn’t know any different. He never saw it. I mentioned it to him again years later, and he never saw what was wrong with it. He never could quite grasp it.” 

Mirren also referred to Parkinson as a “sexist old fart.” In 2016 newspaper The Independent asked Parkinson if he felt an apology was in order, but he refused. “I don’t want to,” Parksinson said, “nor does she. I don’t regard what happened there as being anything other than good television.”

“There is no need to apologize,” he went on. “Not at all. She didn’t want to do an interview and after about ten minutes, I didn’t want to interview her. There’s no problem, it’s not World War III for God’s sake.” Sounds surprisingly similar to the Ryan conversation, which fellow guest stars and fashionistas Susannah Constantine and Trinny Woodall witnessed at first hand. 

According to the magazine section of the Daily Express, the pair related how they could do nothing but watch the disaster happen. “We couldn’t believe what we were hearing,” they said. “It was so painful.” Apparently, Parkinson even whispered some expletives to the pair behind Ryan’s back, revealing just what he thought of the actress.

So what transpired between Ryan and Parkinson that made the interview so memorable for more than a decade? Well, watch the footage online, and you’ll see that it dies before it begins when Parkinson tells Ryan she once said acting “wasn’t in her nature.” The question catches the actress off-guard, and Parkinson pursues the issue by asking, “Are you denying you said that?” 

Ryan doesn’t seem to remember saying it but concedes it sounds like her. An awkward back and forth follows, with Ryan trying to explain how cameras make her nervous and Parkinson challenging why she became an actor in the first place if that was indeed the case. Ryan doesn’t have an explanation, though. 

“I don’t know,” the actress says, “Maybe you can help me with that?” Parkinson offers no respite. “No, I couldn’t,” he counters. “It’s up to you to debate and tell me.” Ryan awkwardly parries the strike and explains how even though she enjoys acting, she doesn’t feel like a natural. So Parkinson hits her with another question. 

The host jabs at her fondness for the work by saying, “But you don’t like the spotlight that goes with it? You can’t have one without the other, can you? You can’t do what you do and be famous and well-known, without…?” His pause offers enough time for Ryan’s riposte.

Ryan hits back with, “Well, you can certainly be an actor and not be a movie star.” But Parkinson continues his probing. “But you are a movie star by choice?” he responds, to which Ryan simply says, “Seemingly.” The audience lets out an uncomfortable laugh as the host replies, “So, you’ve got a problem.” 

He doggedly elaborates, “And it seems one that’s not going to be one resolved on this show, either.” Parkinson then changes tack and asks about Ryan’s training as a journalist. The actress reveals that she didn’t complete her education, and instead fell into acting to pay for her tuition. Apparently, this shaped the course of her transition to celebrity.

Parkinson finally unleashes his coup de grâce by asking Ryan what kind of journalist she would have made, enquiring “You’re wary of journalists, you’re wary of me, you're wary of being interviewed. You can see it in the way you sit and the way you are… in other words, if you were me, what would you do now?” 

“Just wrap it up,” Ryan responds to more nervous tittering from the audience. Guest stars Trinny and Susannah also try to lighten the mood by commenting on Ryan’s shoes, but their attempts fall flat with a short reply of “Thank you” from the movie star. It’s very hard to watch, even now. 

Over the years, both Ryan and Parkinson have referenced the interview at varying times. Ryan called Parkinson “a nut” and he responded with jokes. “I still send her Christmas cards, of course,” he told the Daily Mirror in 2006. “Actually, we’re secret friends. She fancies me, she told me that.”

His jibe didn’t end there, though. “She said, ‘Michael, I would leave home for a man like you,’” he laughed. It doesn’t seem like there’s any love lost between the two, but something’s shifted in recent years. In 2021 Parkinson told magazine the Radio Times that he concedes it wasn’t entirely Ryan’s fault.

Parkinson mused, “I wish I’d dealt with [Ryan] in a more courteous manner… I was quite obviously angry with her, and it’s not my business to be angry towards the guests. I came across as kind of pompous, and I could have done better.” So what would he say to her now, if they were face to face?

The journalist revealed he would say, “I’m sorry… But you must understand that you played a part in it too.” That’s quite a surprise considering Parkinson’s previous stance, but as video comments have suggested, perhaps there’s more to the story. Ryan hinted at some of the unedited content in an interview with Marie Claire magazine in 2006.

Ryan said Parkinson judged her for In the Cut’s nude content, the film which she was there to promote. “I don’t even know the man,” she explained. “That guy was like some disapproving father! It’s crazy. I don’t know what he is to you guys, but he’s a nut.”

“I felt like he was berating me for being naked in the movie,” Ryan continued. “He said something like, ‘You should go back to doing what you were doing.’ And I thought, are you like a disapproving dad right now? I’m not even related to you. Back off, buddy. I was so offended by him.” 

Ryan concluded, “I had to do 20 minutes straight with this guy, and I could either walk off — which probably wouldn’t be good — or try to disagree with him respectfully.” Without being behind the scenes, there’s no way to know who was truly at fault. And maybe the blame doesn’t solely lie with any one person. 

Regardless of who was behind the bust-up, the real question is where the celebrities go from here. And that remains to be seen, considering Ryan has yet to respond to Parkinson’s recent apology. But let’s hope this finally finishes the debate and the whole ordeal can be put to rest. This will go down as one of the most awkward celebrity interviews of all time. But there’s a lot more where that came from...

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