Conan, it's wild backstage.
[Conan] It is?
Yeah, it's wildness back there.
Is there craziness back there?
You have a lot of fun people.
Yeah, it's a very unprofessional show here.
Exactly.
There's probably animals running around backstage.
Yeah, strange outfits and many, yeah.
Yeah, that's us, that's us.
We're like a circus here, and it should stop.
Let's talk about you.
I wanna get started on a few things,
and we've never had you here on the show before.
I know, I can't get over it.
It's great to have you here.
I've been on the air for 40 years, we haven't had you.
Have you?
How's it been going?
I'm 69 years old.
[Meg] You look good.
I was the Gerber Baby Food model, and I'm doing well.
(audience laughing)
You know, it's hard to believe,
'cause you've had such big success in film,
you started out in soap operas.
I guess a lot of people do.
Yes, I did.
I started out on "As the World Turns."
(audience applauding)
I played a-
Did you ever do a soap?
Did I ever do a soap?
(audience chuckling)
What soap would that be?
(audience laughing)
(Meg laughing)
"Welcome to Wrong Town."
"Hi everybody!"
(audience laughing)
No, I never, I never did soaps, no.
I played Betsy Stewart Montgomery Andropolis
on "As the World Turns" for a couple of years.
[Conan] What was with all the names?
A lot of marriages, a lot of failed marriages.
[Conan] Oh okay, right right.
Yeah.
She was the good girl of the town.
It was a while ago, now that I'm thinking about it.
I did a sitcom here in this building.
[Conan] Right, right.
So I want to ask, so one of the things
that fascinates me about soap operas, that I love,
is at the end of every scene, people do that thing where
they say something dramatic and then
both people just look at each other for a while
and dramatic music starts to play.
Yeah, yeah.
And you always think what an awkward moment in real life.
You know?
(audience chuckling)
Really, and it gets worse kind of throughout the week.
So by Friday, even if it's a very mundane
sort of very nondramatic thing,
you have to really, really have a lot of emotion about it.
So by Friday, you know,
because they want people to tune in on Monday.
So you could be very dramatic about
the oven being at the wrong temperature
or something like that.
[Conan] Right.
"I said 350 degrees.
What did you set it at?"
And then they could freeze.
"375."
(audience laughing)
And they can just hold it like that and you really believe-
Hold and hold and hold.
They're so good.
My other favorite move in soap operas is people embrace,
and like, "I love you."
"I love you too."
But one of them knows something bad,
so they embrace and the camera sees the one person go,
"I love you too."
(audience laughing)
Or you're forever clearing everybody's light.
And your work so much, you do it in real life too.
With your boyfriend.
You just get out of the way of someone else's light?
Like all the time, yeah.
Now, you did a sitcom, you mentioned.
Tell us about the sitcom.
I did a sitcom here
and then I did an episode of "Charles In Charge."
You did a "Charles In Charge"?
(audience cheering)
That Scott Baio show.
You remember that show?
Scott Baio was in that show.
One of the great theme songs of all time.
Do you remember it at all?
♪ Charles in charge of our days and our nights ♪
♪ Charles in charge of our wrongs and our rights ♪
I don't know what the hell that means.
You know a lot about "Charles In Charge"!
(audience laughing)
How do you know that?
Charles is like some dictator governing our emotions.
(audience laughing)
How do you know that?
How do I know that?
Things stick in my head.
I know things, and I don't know valuable things.
I really don't.
I don't know like what's the largest landmass in the world.
I don't know that, but I know the "Charles In Charge" theme.
You got any other themes?
Oh, I have lots of themes.
I can't recall them up just on the moment
now I'm getting shy.
I can't do it.
"F-Troop," I know that one.
Do you?
Yeah.
Not as operatic as "Charles In Charge."
No, opera, because it ends, "Charles In Charge" ends with
♪ I want Charles in charge of me! ♪
It ends on this like big kind of like-
(audience cheering)
Which is very-
I'm the dancing monkey on this show.
"Now do this Conan!"
"All right."
(audience laughing)
Tell us about this film.
This song is about boxing
and you actually took boxing lessons.
Yeah.
Are you a fight fan at all?
Am I a fight fan?
I went to the fights once
and I thought it was actually pretty cool.
It's just that I was invited,
but it's, you know, it was one of those things where it was-
It was weird that you were invited?
Yeah, that anyone would invite me anywhere.
It was so strange for me.
It was also free.
I'm a bit of a cheapskate,
and so if I'm invited someplace, I go.
Yeah, yeah.
Well what was your feeling about it?
I thought it was a much more dramatic
than I thought it was going to be
because you can actually hear the gloves hitting the body.
It's very visceral, it's very powerful.
Yeah, yeah, it's really electric
and if you're sitting close enough,
you get sprayed with all kinds of stuff.
[Conan] What?
(audience laughing)
That happens here too.
(Meg laughing)
No, I had a good time.
I played the only woman who ever
successfully managed a middleweight boxing champion.
She had six champions.
Her name was Jackie Cowen.
And she's a real, a real piece of work, you know?
So, and you trained, why did you train?
If you're not playing a fighter, why did you want to train?
I trained 'cause I didn't know anything about boxing
and I was forever screaming things at my boxer that like,
I didn't know what a jab was.
I didn't, you know, so I had to do,
I thought if I could at least put it in my body,
if I could hit a bag or something,
or know what a combination was,
then I'd maybe be a little more effective.
Right, 'cause that way, you've got to learn what it is,
where else your character is gonna be yelling,
"Bash him with your fist!
Bash, bash him!"
(audience laughing)
Yeah, it's a wild world.
[Conan] Right, right.
So you learned, and what was your fighting style?
Well-
What was my fighting style?
Yeah, when you were practicing.
I didn't really have a style,
because I did it for about three weeks
and no one ever threw a punch at me,
but I threw a punch at this guy called Benny the Jet,
you know, he would teach me combinations and stuff
and have me jump rope and things.
Do you box at all?
I like the old style.
(audience laughing)
I like to strip to the waist
and then I like to do a lot of that.
And I like to have a big mustache.
(audience laughing)
And I like to use an office chair just to go in and out
like that, yeah.
And a long one of these.
And the old peek-a-boo, I like that.
Yeah, yeah.
(audience laughing)
I'm an idiot.
No, I should never, if I was ever in a real fight,
I would die in seconds.
Have you ever been in a real fight?
Have I been in a fight?
Yes, I was in a fight actually.
Long time ago, I was in this-
Really?
Yeah, in South Boston I was in a fight once.
Didn't last long, did not do well.
They carried me out of there in a jello bowl.
It was, but yeah, I even forget what it was about.
I can't remember.
See that happens, huh?
It was all traumatic.
Yeah, we guys, you know, we like to get into scrapes.
I sound all tough now.
Yeah, you do.
No wait, I never do.
(audience chuckling)
Now we have a clip here from the movie.
Tell us what we need to know.
This I think it's after Jackie's boxer,
played by Omar Epps,
has won his first fight.
So they're in the locker room just after.
Good, let's take a look at this clip
from "Against The Ropes."
That was beautiful, that was beautiful.
Nice work on the jab.
Did you see that right hook, Felix?
Did you see that?
It was great!
Yeah, he did all right.
(knocking at door)
Hold on, hold on one second.
Whoever it is, nobody act surprised that we won.
(audience cheering)
It's not cool to be too surprised.
No no no.
You don't wanna do that.
She's workin' it.
"Against The Ropes" opens on Friday.
Meg, thank you so much for being here.
Oh, thank you so much, nice to see you.
Come again.
Meg Ryan, everybody.
(audience cheering)
The Fab Five coming up,
we'll take a break, we'll be right back.