Why when Harry met Sally almost had a heartbreaking ending
When Harry met Sally director by Rob Reiner personal life almost led to a different – and much more heartbreaking – ending for the romantic comedy.
“I was married for ten years,” Reiner, 76, said in the Friday, February 16 episode Who's talking to Chris Wallace. “I had been single for ten years, and I couldn't figure out how I could ever be with anyone. From that came When Harry Met Sally.”
Reiner revealed that he “didn't meet any new people” after his divorce from Penny Marshall in 1981, almost changing the story so that the title characters did not have a happy ending. “The idea was that they would see each other again after years, talk and then walk away from each other,” he explained.
Fortunately, Reiner met his current wife Michele Singer. The couple married in 1989, the same year When Harry met Sally hit theaters, and they now share three children: Jake, born in 1991, Nick, born in 1993, and Romy, born in 1997. (Reiner also shares daughter Tracy, born in 1964, with Marshall.)
Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal created romantic comedy perfection in When Harry Met Sally – and viewers continue to fall in love with their performances. The Rob Reiner-directed film follows Harry Burns (Crystal) and Sally Albright (Ryan) from the moment they meet in Chicago through more than a decade of friendship and missed connections. Written […]
New love was all Reiner needed to change the trajectory of the story. “I met [Michele] while we were making the movie, and I changed the ending,” he said, crediting Singer for the “tearjerker” ending.
When Harry met Sallywritten by Nora Ephronfollows old college friends Harry (Billy Kristal) and Sally (Mega Ryan) for decades of their lives as they debate whether or not men and women can be just friends. After years of back and forth, the final moments of the film see Harry rushing to a New Year's Eve party to find Sally and confess his love before midnight. The couple share a kiss and the final scene reveals that they were married three months later.
Upon its release, the film became both a critical and box office success and is often revered as one of the best rom-coms of all time. In May 2019, Reiner confessed that making the film felt like a gamble at the time.
“You never know. You make a movie and hopefully you like it, and hopefully other people like it [do too]. You have no idea if it will stand the test of time, and it's pretty cool that it does,” he said, appreciating When Harry met Sally's universal themes because of its lasting power. “I think there are some fundamental truths about men and women that people connect with, and things like that – that dance, that weird dance that men and women do with each other, is fundamental and always there. .”
Of course, the ending isn't everything When Harry met Sally is known for. The famous scene where Sally and Harry have lunch at Katz's Deli – a staple of New York City's Lower East Side – and Sally performs her best fake orgasm to show how easy it is for women to fake sexual pleasure is has become an iconic moment in cinema.
It also brings an endless amount of mortification to Ryan's children. Last year, the actress told Interview magazine that her children are sons Jack Quaidwhich she shares with her ex-husband Dennis Quaidand daughter Daisy, whom she adopted in 2006 – experience a “very unique kind of shame” when confronted with the NSFW moment.
Jack, meanwhile, revealed in 2019 that he waited as long as he could to watch the film, but found himself regretting it after witnessing his mother's actions.
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“When you're a kid and your mom has one of the most famous orgasm scenes of all time, you tend to [avoid it]he shared during an episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!. “But I was doing a rom-com and I was like, 'Okay, I have to watch the rom-com, I was alone, I finished it and I immediately started crying because I was so proud of her.
Jack said he was immediately forgiven, as Ryan admitted she had only seen the movie once herself.
“I [couldn’t believe it],” he said. “If I were in the movie, it would be an hour and a half GIF on constant rotation. I would never stop watching it.”