Thirty-five years after its theatrical release the legendary romantic comedy is still adored by fans of all ages, and has influenced countless rom-coms in its wake.
When Harry Met Sally… was released to theatres across North America on July 14, 1989 and ended up becoming one of the biggest romantic comedies of all time. The film famously starred Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan as Harry Burns and Sally Albright respectively, and was directed by Rob Reiner from a screenplay by Nora Ephron that was inspired by conversations between two friends, one male and one female, who asked, “Can men and women be just friends?”
The film begins in 1977, with Harry and Sally sharing a car ride from Chicago to New York City after graduating college and explores the pairs evolving relationship over the next decade. Harry and Sally bump into each other sporadically in New York, go through relationships and breakups and eventually develop a close friendship. As they help each other navigate their single lives, their bond deepens, leading to romantic tension and eventually, love.
The movie resonated with critics and movie-goers alike, grossing $92.8 million at the box office and earning an Oscar nomination for its sharp and witty screenplay (Ephron ultimately lost out to Tom Schulman, who wrote Dead Poets Society at the 62nd annual Academy Awards). 35 years after its premiere, the movie is still adored by fans of all ages, and it has influenced countless rom-coms in its wake.
Crystal’s career exploded after the film’s release, as did Ryan’s career. Ryan was ultimately coined the rom-com queen, as she went on to star in other popular films in the genre, including Sleepless in Seattle (1993) and You’ve Got Mail (1998), both of which co-starred Tom Hanks and were written and directed by Ephron.
To celebrate the 35th anniversary of When Harry Met Sally…, here are 10 fun facts about the rom-com classic that you might not have known.
The film was inspired by Rob Reiner’s personal experience of returning to single life after a divorce
When Harry Met Sally… was loosely based on Reiner’s experience of the post-divorce single life, and his friendship with writer and filmmaker Nora Ephron. “I’d been married for 10 years and I’d been single for 10 years. And during that time when I was single, I kept being in and out of different relationships, and they didn’t go so good. And I kept getting confused. How do you make friendships? If you have sex, does that ruin the friendship? All those questions that are brought up in the film, I said, ‘This has got to be the basis for something here,'” remembered Reiner in an interview with the A.V. Club.
“So I went to Nora and I told her about it, and she said, ‘I like that idea,’ and so she interviewed me. She was like a reporter, and I told her all these stories of different things that I had been through. And she wrote this stuff down, and she injected her own experiences.”
They had different actors in mind for the lead roles
Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan seemed made for the roles of Harry Burns and Sally Albright, but it turns out that Reiner had been talking with actors Tom Hanks, Richard Dreyfuss and Michael Keaton about taking the part of Harry, and was thinking of ’80s teen movie queen Molly Ringwald to play Sally. In the end, he cast his best friend Crystal, who at the time was a complete unknown, and Ryan, who had never played a leading role in a major film.
“Billy was not a movie star at that point, and Meg, people didn’t even know. She had done something like D.O.A. and had a small part in Top Gun. Billy was my best friend at the time, so I thought he would be good in this part and I didn’t have to worry about the studio because I was the studio—we were financing our own film. It was a tricky thing because he was my best friend, so I had to be sure he was right for it because if it didn’t work, it could get really uncomfortable and awkward,” he said in an interview with the Daily Beast.
“But I crossed that bridge and we agreed to do it, and then we held auditions and Meg read with Billy. They had instant chemistry and I thought, ‘OK, this is great.'”
They had trouble coming up with the title When Harry Met Sally…
Ephron reportedly had a tough time coming up with a title for the screenplay. At first it was called Scenes From a Friendship. Other titles that were considered were Boy Meets Girl, How They Met, and Harry, This Is Sally. Eventually Reiner offered a case of champagne to the person who came up with the winning title.
The between-scene “how me met” stories came from real couples
Ephron wrote the script over several years — at the same time Reiner was making hit films Stand By Me and The Princess Bride — and when she got tired of writing, she would interview co-workers in the production company. Those interviews, in turn, became the interludes where couples talk about how they met. (The scenes were shot with actors.)
Billy Crystal can take credit for the film’s most famous line
The fake orgasm scene, which was filmed at the New York restaurant Katz’s Deli, is by far the most recognized moment from the film. In the legendary scene where Sally fakes an orgasm in a diner to prove a point to Harry, a woman sitting at a table nearby quips to the server, “I’ll have what she’s having.” In an interview, Crystal revealed that the line “I’ll have what she’s having,” was actually his brilliant idea. Another fun fact? The older woman who delivered the legendary line is none other than was Reiner’s mother Estelle.
Katz’s Delicatessen is proud of the role it played in When Harry Met Sally…
Since its founding in 1888, Katz’s Deli (located at 205 East Houston Street, on the southwest corner of Houston and Ludlow Streets on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City), has been popular among locals and tourists alike for its pastrami on rye. Of course, the famous fake orgasm scene only increased the popularity of the kosher-style delicatessen. Katz’s fully embraces the love it gets from movie lovers. In fact, there’s a sign above the table where the famous scene was shot that reads, “Where Harry met Sally… hope you have what she had! Enjoy!”
The split-screen scenes are an ironic homage to a Hollywood classic
The split-screen scenes in When Harry Met Sally… are actually an ironic homage to 1959’s Pillow Talk, which was directed by Michael Gordon and starred Rock Hudson and Doris Day. At the time Pillow Talk was made, the Motion Picture Production Code, also known as the Hays Code, set moral guidelines for all the films released by major studios. Movies weren’t allowed to show a couple in bed together, or any sort of sexual relationship between unmarried partners. (The code was finally abandoned in 1968) Harry and Sally were kept apart to show how close they were as “just friends.”
The film catapulted Harry Connick Jr. to stardom.
Celebrated actor and singer Harry Connick Jr. got his big break in When Harry Met Sally…, except his role wasn’t onscreen. Instead, he was responsible for most of the songs on the movie’s best-selling soundtrack. The New Orleans crooner caught the attention of Reiner, who tapped him to him to create a soundtrack for the film — which included standards like “It Had To Be You” and “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off” as well as originals . The success of the soundtrack instantly catapulted Harry Connick Jr. into the limelight and even scored the 22-year-old his first-ever Grammy for best jazz male vocal performance. BTW: The When Harry Met Sally… soundtrack went Platinum two times over!
Reiner met his wife while shooting the film, and that changed the ending
Originally the film was going to end with Harry and Sally both going their separate ways, but Reiner ended up giving it a more romantic ending after meeting his future wife, photographer Michele Singer, while directing the film. (Reiner and Singer are still together, and they have three children and five grandchildren) The two were originally introduced by cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld after Reiner heard that Michelle Pfeiffer was getting a divorce and told Sonnenfeld he was going to call her. As Reiner told the Guardian, Sonnenfeld responded, “You’re not going to call her, you’re going to marry my friend Michele Singer.”
No one expected When Harry Met Sally… to be a hit
The film was up against a number of summer blockbusters when it was released in 1989, including Batman, Ghostbusters II, Licence to Kill, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. When Harry Met Sally… had its soft launch on July 14 in just 41 theatres, grossing $1 million and went into wide release across North America on July 21, 1989. And the rest is rom-com history. Through the years its remained a beloved rom-com classic and finally in 2022, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.
