ReinersaysCrystal(onset
withRyan,above)“played
a betterversionofme”.
The phone scene (right)
came from Reiner and
Crystal’s habit of watching
TV while chatting on the
phone. Left: Writer Nora
Ephron and Reiner. “Nora
said, ‘You don’t have to say
everything you’re feeling
at the time you’re feeling
it,’” says Reiner. “That was
something Sally took on.”ALL ABOUT THAT
DELI SCENE
The staff at Katz’s deli in Manhattan still hear the movie’s most famous line
daily: “I’ll have what she’s having.” Yet the quote – following Sally’s epic fake
orgasm – wasn’t in the original script. Because Harry reveals a male view on
post-sex cuddle time (“between 30 seconds and all night is your problem”),
Reiner wanted something men might not know about. Someone suggested:
fake orgasms? “Nora goes, ‘That’s a thing,’” says Reiner. “I then, like an idiot- this is way before #MeToo – I’m walking around the office, to women, like,
‘Lemme ask you ...’” He gave the punchline to his mum, Estelle, but not
before thunderously demonstrating Sally’s part. After, recalls Crystal, “He
says, ‘I shouldn’t have done that. I just had an orgasm in front of my mother.’”
Billy, you had never been a romantic lead.
And Meg, you’d had a lot of supporting
roles before this.
Meg Ryan: Yeah, I don’t think I’d had been
a lead. These guys – I’ll forever be grateful
- took a huge chance on me.
Rob Reiner: I had a company, Castle Rock,
that allowed me to do what I wanted to do.
You go to a studio and say you want to make
a romantic comedy like this, with two people
who are not – they became massive stars but
not at the time – they wouldn’t do it.
Ryan: That’s also the strength of the script. It
was undeniably funny, and it read really fast.
Still, I remember how much blank space
there was – how much talk and chatter and
banter. It was in such a perfect rhythm.
Rob, is it true you considered other actors
for Harry?
Billy Crystal: [Puts his hands over his ears]
La, la, la, la, la ...
Reiner: Whenever you do something this
personal and you’re best friends, if it doesn’t
work it’s like, “Oi!” Finally I said, “Aw, f--k it;
he’s perfect!” The biggest laugh in any film
I’ve ever done was a line Billy came up with:
“I’ll have what she’s having.” Meg was the
one who said, “I’ll do it in some incongruous
place, like a restaurant.”
Meg, did you then regret having had that
idea when it came time to shoot the scene?
Ryan: No. It was written as a discussion
of women faking orgasm. But Sally is a
behaviourally funny character; how she isfunny. So it was logical that she’d do it.
Reiner: After Meg finishes this big thing,
she calmly takes a bite of coleslaw. That
was my favourite.
There’s a lot of food in this movie. Like,
who orders turkey at New York’s Katz’s
deli? Sally does.
Ryan: That’s Nora [Ephron].
Reiner: We were having lunch one day, and
Nora started ordering with “on the side.”
I said, “This is crazy! This has to be part of
the character.”
Meg, do you now feel that you really
have to stick to a restaurant menu,
no substitutions?
Ryan: I didn’t know until I played Sally that
you could do that. I didn’t know you couldBASEDONLIFE
Reiner says Crystal (on set40 l Who