BETTY CHATS WITH MEG RYAN ABOUT CELL PHONES, SPREADING HERESLF TOO THIN AND WALTER MATHAU'S BUTTCHEEKS!

In the new film Hanging Up, three sisters - Eve (Meg Ryan), Georgia (Diane Keaton) and Maddy (Lisa Kudrow) - deal with hectic schedules and the telephone when they learn that their father (Walter Matthau), after years of wild living, intermittent affection, constant phoning and driving them crazy, is finally threatening to die. Betty sat down with the film's middle child, Meg Ryan, to find out what it was like working with her co-stars, how she gets away from it all and Walter Matthau's butt cheeks! Here's how it went...

BBB: Why do you think your character's willing to take so much abuse from her father and yet she still loves him and takes care of him?
Meg: That's what I really like about this movie. There she is; she loves her dad so much and she knows that she's not the "favorite" one...and this whole idea that she has all this responsibility that she's disappearing underneath...by the end of the movie she can say that he depended on her and I think that was a brave and true thing to admit. I like the complication of it.

BBB: Have you ever felt like Eve? Like you were drowning in responsibility?
Meg: In my own life I've felt like that. I'm in the car...on the phone...with the dog in the back...with a coffee...have to get here and there.you know? I felt very run-around like I was living a reactive life instead of a proactive one. So I really understood how overwhelmed she was.

BBB: What did you do to manage all that?
Meg: Well, like a don't have a cell phone. I do have a phone in my car but only a couple people have that number. And I've had to say "no" to a lot of people and things. First we had no choices, and now we have so many.

It's about managing all of those choices without feeling badly about rejecting some of them. I had to reorganize my priorities, really. There are things like yoga that help and not being available to other people's dramas as Eve is. There's such a thing as empathy, but she has rampant empathy.

BBB: You can push yourself away from it all?
Meg: I try to witness it and see what concerns me really and what doesn't.

BBB: How was it working with Diane Keaton as a director?
Meg: When she likes something she goes, "S-H-I-T!" And then if it can be different or better, she'll go, "Yeah, uh-huh. Okay Meg, let's do it again." We didn't have one second of rehearsal before or during the shooting of the movie. I got to work and she set up an obstacle course, and I was going to fill it in.

And it helped me 'cuz Eve was run-around. She was at the mercy of forces and Diane would set things up so it felt like that for me. I felt like she trusted people and it felt liberating because of that.

BBB: Did she have an influence on you becoming an actress?
Meg: I'm positive. I don't ever remember there not being a Diane Keaton. I first saw her back in the days when everybody was wearing disco clothes and that's what it was. And then there was Annie Hall. The whole idea that there was a person who was applauded for their individuality was revolutionary for a lot of my friends. We couldn't believe it.

BBB: I understand you have your own production company. How important is it for you as an actress to also be a producer?
Meg: I think what it's done is informed my acting. I don't think I'll ever be a producer who's into taking the meetings and fighting the big fights with studios. I really don't like that part. I'm much more interested in the material.

BBB: Did you set up the production company in order to land films that you were interested in for yourself?
Meg: Yeah. We have some projects for me, but most of them are not for me. They ended up being some TV projects and Lost Souls which will be out soon. I have a great partner though - she does most of the work.

BBB: What's up next for you Meg?
Meg: I'm doing this movie called Proof of Life with Russell Crow in Ecuador.

BBB: Didn't they just have a military coo in Ecuador?
Meg: Um...yes, they did. I was watching TV the other day and there was this coo! Hmm, maybe we won't be doing it there.

BBB: What was it like working with Walter Matthau?
Meg: He mooned us just so you know. You know that scene where we open the door and he's in there with his latest girl? He mooned us! Very sexy. That was a totally unexpected experience.

BBB: I know he was very sick. Any idea on how he's doing now?
Meg: I think he's out of the hospital and doing fine. I guess. But I truly don't know.

BBB: This is gonna sound so weird, but I really dig your style in this movie. Did you have any input in how you looked?

Meg: Diane just kept saying, "White is right. White is right." The only thing we thought about her was that she'd have a lot of white on and dark, chunky shoes. Remember; we all watched Diane and she expresses herself with her clothes. And the things she'd wear on set! She'd come in wearing Uggs [those fuzzy boots with rubber soles] all the time. Cut to two weeks later, and we'd all be wearing those same Uggs!

BBB: Nice to know those puppies are still in style!