FILM · 1989 · USA
When Harry Met Sally...
- Directed by
- Rob Reiner
- Runtime
- 96 min
- Studio
- Castle Rock Entertainment, Nelson Entertainment
19 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
Sex always gets in the way of friendships between men and women. At least, that's what Harry Burns believes. So when Harry meets Sally Albright and a deep friendship blossoms between them, Harry's determined not to let his attraction to Sally destroy it. But when a night of weakness ends in a morning of panic, can the pair avoid succumbing to Harry's fears by remaining friends and admitting they just might be the…
Summary: TMDB
All facts (19)
- #001
The interview segments in which married couples describe how they met are real stories that director Rob Reiner collected for the film. Actors were later hired to recount those stories.
- #002
At a test screening, director Rob Reiner reported that during the fake orgasm scene all the women in the audience laughed loudly while the men were silent.
- #003
The scene in which the four main characters speak individually with one another on various phones took sixty takes to complete.
- #004
The idea that Sally is a picky eater came from the film's screenwriter, Nora Ephron. Years after the film's release, when Ephron ordered something very specific on a plane, the flight attendant looked at her and asked, "Have you ever seen When Harry Met Sally...?"
- #005
The orgasm scene was shot at Katz's Deli, a real restaurant on East Houston Street in New York. A plaque now sits on the table where the scene was filmed, reading "Where Harry met Sally... hope you have what she had!"
- #006
In the museum scene, Billy Crystal (Harry) improvised: "But I'd be proud to partake of your pecan pie." Meg Ryan (Sally) laughed and looked to director Rob Reiner, who silently encouraged her to continue the improvisation.
- #007
Harry and Sally's final interview at the end of the film was entirely improvised.
- #008
In an interview with NPR on November 2, 2004, writer Nora Ephron said that Meg Ryan suggested not only the idea of faking an orgasm in the famous restaurant scene, but also the idea of setting it in a restaurant in the first place.
- #009
Sally's picky and eccentric eating habits were included in the film after director Rob Reiner saw screenwriter Nora Ephron order her food the way Sally does in the film. When Reiner raised the subject, Ephron noted that the line "I just want it the way I want it" was one that made it into the film.
- #010
The off-camera voice saying "Hey, everybody, ten seconds until new year" belongs to director Rob Reiner.
- #011
The scene in which Sally calls Marie and Harry calls Jess at the same time used three separate sets. As Rob Reiner explained: "We had three different sets: the one with Bruno and Carrie [one]; a separate set with Billy; and a [third] set with Meg. They were all in the same sound stage. It was almost like recording in a studio. The phones were all connected, because if you notice there were no cuts... If one of them made a mistake — and this is a three-to-four-page scene — you can't cover it. You can't cut anything. You have to do it again." Asked how many times they tried to get it right, Reiner said they shot it 61 times. In the end each of them hung up their phone — bum, bum, bum. Getting it right took a long time. He said that after about 54 minutes they hung up the phones perfectly, so they had to start over.
- #012
The original script for the notorious orgasm scene called for Harry and Sally merely to talk about women who fake orgasms, until Meg Ryan suggested that Sally actually fake an orgasm at the table. Director Rob Reiner liked the idea and wrote it into the script.
- #013
The film is based on director Rob Reiner's experiences after his divorce and as a single man. By coincidence, Reiner met his current wife during the making of the film.
- #014
Nora Ephron based much of the film's structure on dialogue drawn from the real-life friendship between Rob Reiner and Billy Crystal. For example, in the scene where Sally and Harry appear in split screen talking on the phone while watching their own televisions, channel-surfing was something Crystal and Reiner did every night.
- #015
In the first draft, Harry and Sally did not end up together. Later, however, screenwriter Nora Ephron and director Rob Reiner decided that Harry and Sally belonged together.
- #016
Director Rob Reiner, screenwriter Nora Ephron and producer Andrew Scheinman chose beautiful locations to emphasize the characters' lack of insight. Harry and Sally are blind to romance as much as to the love growing between them. The same logic was applied to Harry's apartment. Its windows look out on the Empire State Building; it could be the most beautiful or the loneliest view in the world.
- #017
Harry's character was in part based on director Rob Reiner. Reiner was depressive, sarcastic and neurotic but, like Harry Burns in the film, had a huge heart. Sally's character was in part based on screenwriter Nora Ephron. Ephron was optimistic, cheerful and loved being in control, and was the kind of person who, like Sally Albright, was entirely "just fine."
- #018
The film ranks sixth on AFI's list of the top 10 films in the "Romantic Comedy" genre.
- #019
Harry is shown reading Stephen King's novel "Misery." The film adaptation, Misery (1990), would be Rob Reiner's next film as director.
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