--- title: Meg Ryan: Tom Hanks Gave Speech About Director in Ithaca description: Meg Ryan told the sweetest on set story about Tom Hanks. canonical: https://time.com/4422735/tom-hanks-meg-ryan-ithaca/ author: Ashley Hoffman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-25T21:45:18.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:34:46.778Z og:title: Tom Hanks Supported Meg Ryan in the Sweetest Way Possible og:description: "I love him so much" og:url: https://time.com/4422735/tom-hanks-meg-ryan-ithaca/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Tom Hanks Supported Meg Ryan in the Sweetest Way Possible twitter:description: "I love him so much" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Tom Hanks Supported Meg Ryan in the Sweetest Way Possible by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Jul 25, 2016 9:45 PM UTC by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Jul 25, 2016 9:45 PM UTC [Tom Hanks](http://time.com/4379762/tom-hanks-career-advice-allison-williams/), who is producing [Meg Ryan’s](http://time.com/74493/meg-ryan-in-how-i-met-your-dad/) directorial debut movie _Ithaca_, gave everyone on the set of the film an adorable speech about supporting her. It’s not like Meg Ryan isn’t “getting her life” all by herself directing a movie about a heroic teen boy who shows everyone what he’s made of during WWII, but Hanks did do something lovely [again](http://time.com/3742246/tom-hanks-girl-scout-cookies/). [_Entertainment Weekly_](http://www.ew.com/article/2016/07/24/meg-ryan-ithaca-interview) asked Ryan what it meant to have Hanks on set, and she told such a sweet story about it that it could belong in a little indie book shop. --- > “” --- The duo previously played opposite each other in the romantic comedies _Sleepless in Seattle_ and _You’ve Got Mail._ Hanks won’t play Ryan’s love interest in this movie though. But that doesn’t matter. Wherever Meg Ryan goes, Tom Hanks is there. He will always be there, lending a sturdy helping hand and a voice of comfort with his pep talks about how great she is. And the bond lives on. Ryan will star alongside Sam Shepard, Melanie Griffith and Jack Quaid in _Ithaca_. \[[Entertainment Weekly](http://www.ew.com/article/2016/07/24/meg-ryan-ithaca-interview)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4422735/tom-hanks-meg-ryan-ithaca/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4422735/tom-hanks-meg-ryan-ithaca/"},"headline":"Tom Hanks Supported Meg Ryan in the Sweetest Way Possible","datePublished":"2016-07-25T21:45:18.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:34:46.778Z","description":"\"I love him so much\"","url":"https://time.com/4422735/tom-hanks-meg-ryan-ithaca/","keywords":["Newsfeed","movies","celebrities","Tom Hanks"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ashley Hoffman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4422735/tom-hanks-meg-ryan-ithaca/","name":"Tom Hanks Supported Meg Ryan in the Sweetest Way Possible"}}]}] ```