(CNN) – For Meg Ryan, acting is “a job, not a lifestyle.”
The Sleepless in Seattle star spoke to People magazine about why she stepped away from acting for several years.
“I took a big break because I felt like there were so many other aspects of my experience as a human being that I wanted to develop,” she told the publication. “I like to think of it as a job rather than a lifestyle. For me, it’s a great way to deal with it.”
During this absence, she focused on raising her son Jack, now 31, with her ex-husband Dennis Quaid and 18-year-old Daisy, whom she adopted in 2006.
Now, eight years after her directorial debut in 2015 with “Ithaca,” the last film she worked on, Ryan is returning to the big screen.
She is the co-writer, director and star of the new romantic comedy What Happens Later, a story about ex-lovers who are stranded at an airport overnight due to a snowstorm.
“It came to me during quarantine,” he says. “The essence is that of two people trapped together. I love the idea that we are locked in a space, even if it seems contradictory, perhaps for reasons that are healing.”
Ryan shares the cast with David Duchovny and described the production as “magical.”
The film is about fate, or the idea that everything happens for a reason, he said.
That got him thinking about the late writer-director Nora Ephron, who was responsible for some of Ryan’s most memorable roles in films like “Harry and Sally” and “You’ve Got Mail.”
“The films I did with Nora were about fate, like fate and luck,” Ryan said. “And there’s something really comforting about that.”
“What Happens Later” hits theaters on November 3rd.