Meg Ryan Feels Like the 'Luckiest Person You're Ever Going to Meet': 'I Don't Look at the Downside'

Meg Ryan is thankful for how her life has played out.

The What Happens Later actress and director touched on gratitude and perspective during a "Masterclass" talk at the Sarajevo Film Festival in Bosnia on Tuesday, Aug. 20, where she is being honored with the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo.

"I don’t look at the downside very often," said Ryan, 62, per Variety, during the discussion on Tuesday, which was moderated by Oscar-winning Bosnian filmmaker Danis Tanović,

"I am the luckiest person you’re ever going to meet," she added. “I don’t have feelings like I’m being denied anything. I have a charmed existence and I work with incredible people.”

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Addressing aging in the showbusiness industry, the When Harry Met Sally star said, “There’s no doubt that for anybody older, roles are limited — for an actor."

“But those limits don’t exist for a director or a producer. And at a certain point you just want to say what you mean. And sometimes, that’s not about being an actor," added Ryan, per Variety.

Her comments come less than a year after she said in a cover story for Glamour's December 2023 issue that “aging is not that terrifying.”

“Our culture is so obsessed with youth,” Ryan continued. “As an old person now, I love my age. I love where I’m at.”

“We’re all doing it. I wish someone had told me earlier, ‘Just relax. It is what it is. Don’t pay attention to the obstacles,’ ” added the You've Got Mail actress.

What Happens Later, Ryan's romantic comedy costarring David Duchovny, premiered in November of last year. It marked her first movie since 2015, and second time directing a feature film.

Of stepping away from the spotlight in the years before, the actress — who's mom to son Jack Quaid, 32, with ex-husband Dennis Quaid, and daughter Daisy, 18, whom she adopted in 2006 — told PEOPLE in October 2023, “I took a giant break because I felt like there's just so many other parts of my experience as a human being I wanted to develop."

“It's nice to think of it as a job and not a lifestyle," Ryan added of her career. "And that is a great way of navigating it for me."