Trivia / In the Cut

---

• Contractual Purity: At the time of its release, the film was overshadowed by backlash surrounding Meg Ryan playing against her "America’s sweetheart" archetype and doing a darker, sexual movie. Much of the press focused on Ryan’s decision to do nudity. During the film’s press tour, a cringe-worthy interview occurred on BBC where interviewer Michael Parkinson interrogated a visibly uncomfortable Ryan about the nude scenes. Years later, Parkinson apologized for the interview.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Meg Ryan was famous for being blonde, and had her hair dyed brown.
• Method Acting: Mark Ruffalo went on many undercover assignments with police to prepare for his role.
• Playing Against Type: Meg Ryan was mostly known as the rom-com queen in roles that utilized her expressiveness and sunny demeanor. This film was a departure for Ryan in that not only is her signature blonde hair dyed brown, but her character Frannie is detached and inscrutable.
• Prop Recycling: The entire wardrobe was purchased for $400 from the remains of a recently cancelled TV show called The Job.
• Star-Derailing Role: The drastically against-type subject matter for Meg Ryan is thought to have damaged her reputation as the queen of romantic comedies in the 90s and early 2000s, although critics actually praised her performance at the time. Following the failure of Against the Ropes, she took a three year hiatus.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Nicole Kidman was originally cast to play Frannie during development but had to drop out as she was going through her divorce to Tom Cruise at the time; she retains a producer credit on the film. Ironically, Meg Ryan was the original choice to play Suzanne Stone Maretto in To Die For, a role that ended up going to Kidman.
  • Mickey Rourke was interested in starring, but that was vetoed by Nicole Kidman while she was still on board, due to his wild reputation at the time.

---