Meg Ryan continues to fight against being labelled as America's Sweetheart, so one challenging choice was to play a boxer's manager. Steve Pratt reports.

MEG Ryan continues her quest to live down her image as America's sweetheart by climbing into the boxing ring in her latest movie, Against The Ropes.

After baring all in the erotic thriller In The Cut, her next step in changing her image is to play boxing manager Jackie Kallen, a big-haired and brassy former sports journalist who broke into the world of boxing.

Fifteen years after so memorably faking an orgasm in When Harry Met Sally, she's still known as the queen of romantic comedies thanks to movies like Sleepless In Seattle and You've Got Mail, both opposite Tom Hanks. Outwardly, the 42-year-old actress and Kallen, 55, are very different women. What links them is their battle to make it in a male-dominated business. "One of the things this movie gets at that I related to is the idea of being underestimated," says Ryan. "This character navigates the world in a way that's unapologetic about her sexuality. I've definitely been someone who people like to think one thing of.

"In this case we're examining all sorts of things, being underestimated, navigating an oppressive male environment, having your sexuality get you in the door and also be your worst enemy."

Ryan's wardrobe is different this time too, with lots of tight, low-cut dresses and high hells. She enjoyed playing someone far removed from herself. "It was uncomfortable at first but I worked my way around it," she says.

Having little experience of boxing before taking the role, she went with Kallen and director Charles S Dutton to real fights and watched a lot of fight tapes. The sheer purity of the sport appealed to her.

"I was really taken with that, there's no masks, there's no helmets, there's just two guys in the most fierce kind of competition. There is a big difference between fighting and boxing," she says.

"As soon as you start to understand you get emotionally involved with the people who are up there. I found a lot of parallels between the world of boxing and Hollywood. They're very happy to label you because you look a certain way."

Her own romantic life has been difficult and well-publicised in recent years. There was the break-up of her marriage to actor Dennis Quaid, after a fling with Russell Crowe. The couple, who have a 13-year-old son Jack, divorced in 2001. Ryan won't comment on her private life. Her monosyllabic answers on Michael Parkinson's chat show at the time of the release of In The Cut made the headlines, after she suggested he should wrap up the interview. She later claimed Parkie had been rude and hostile from the beginning.

Kallen was very involved in the making of Against The Ropes, and Ryan found her very generous in helping with the role. "It was a pretty gutsy thing to do, to surrender to a process that's sometimes very complicated," she says.

Changes were made to the real-life story in the transfer to the big screen. While handling the careers of four champion boxers, Kallen also raised two kids and survived a heart attack. On screen, she's portrayed as single and child-free Jackie, although the boxing promoter says she was happy with the poetic licence as the character portrayed was essentially the same. Ryan has another project lined up, although she's unwilling to talk about it too much. She will say it's not another of the romantic comedies which made her famous, but isn't turning her back on the genre that earned her the label of America's Sweetheart.

"These films came along at just the right time but I hope there will be more romantic comedies because I love doing those too," she says.

* Against The Ropes (12A) opens in cinemas tomorrow .

Published: 13/05/2004