It has been a reasonably good time to be a fan of When Harry Met Sally… within the early days of 2025. The celebs of the 1989 romantic comedy basic, Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan, reprised their titular roles in a Tremendous Bowl advert for Hellmann’s Mayonnaise and, the next month, appeared on the 2025 Academy Awards collectively to current this yr’s Finest Image Oscar winner, Anora. A few weeks later, I scored a VHS copy of the movie, which is how I watched it for the primary time in years.
This was additionally the primary time I watched director Rob Reiner and author Nora Ephron’s witty, thought-provoking masterpiece figuring out an attention-grabbing behind-the-scenes incontrovertible fact that I really suppose is among the most fascinating and, particularly, heartwarming particulars about When Harry Met Sally… Learn on to be taught all about it.
The “How We Met” Tales Are Based mostly In Reality
When Harry Met Sally… follows the evolving relationship between the 2 central characters from strangers who hate one another to platonic buddies to passionate lovers over the course of 12 years. Positioned in between these notable chapters of their lives are documentary-style scenes through which married {couples} recall how they met, the final of which options Harry and Sally telling their story. Excluding that remaining second, every of the tales from these scenes is predicated in reality.
Reiner explains in a DVD featurette that, whereas these interstitials are carried out by actors, the tales they inform have been collected by Ephron, who interviewed actual {couples} about their “meet-cutes” and included the recollections into her screenplay. Reiner obtained the concept for these sequences when he requested the daddy of his good friend, Alan Horn, how he met “Mrs. Horn,” and he instantly “lit up” on the alternative to speak about it. The filmmaker then realized that everybody has a superb story about how they met their partner, which grew to become the overall foundation for When Harry Met Sally...
Making When Harry Met Sally… Is Rob Reiner’s Personal “How We Met” Story
One other fascinating element about When Harry Met Sally… is that the movie initially ended on a extra heartbreaking word. As a substitute of their fortunately ever after, the rut of their friendship after a clumsy one-night stand would show finally irreparable. The rationale, as Reiner revealed to CNN’s Chris Wallace, was that, after 10 years of the one life following his divorce from the late Penny Marshall, he couldn’t think about falling in love once more.
Every little thing modified when he fell in love through the manufacturing of When Harry Met Sally… Reiner defined to James Corden on a 2016 episode of The Late Late Present that, after assembly his spouse, Michele Singer, he and Ephron determined to provide Harry and Sally the completely satisfied ending that audiences would come to cherish eternally.
Reiner was actually on to one thing when he realized that everybody has a superb “how we met” story. He simply didn’t notice that he was about to expertise his personal whereas making a film based mostly on that very idea. It’s but one more reason why When Harry Met Sally… is among the all-time most essential films concerning the thriller of affection.