Billy Crystal, Meg Ryan, and director Rob Reiner reunited last night to celebrate When Harry Met Sally‘s 30th anniversary at the opening night of the TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood.
“It was thrilling when they said, ‘We want to honor the film after all these years,’ and to see the attention that it’s getting and to see how people are reacting to seeing all of us together,” Crystal told the Associated Press on the red carpet.
While Ryan posed on the red carpet in a sleek suit and platform boots, her beloved co-star snuck up behind her to give her a hug, making us nostalgic for their onscreen characters in the 1989 rom-com. The actress noted her undeniable chemistry with Crystal, telling attendees at the event, “It’s the kind of music Billy and I knew how to play together,” per People.
Of course, the night could not go on without mention of the movie’s classic deli scene, where Sally (Ryan) demonstrates to Harry (Crystal) how women can fake an orgasm in a restaurant full of people. “I’ll have what she’s having,” a curious bystander (played by Reiner’s own mother) iconically says after the performance.
Apparently, the bold moment was Ryan’s idea. “Meg was the one who said, ‘I’ll do it. I’ll actually do it,’” Reiner recalled, per Entertainment Weekly.
“The idea was we gotta have something that men don’t know about women because earlier where they’re in the plane together and Billy talked about after sex how a man feels and all that, and we were saying we need a counterpoint,” Reiner continued. “And Meg said, ‘I’ll do it, I’ll just actually act it out. We don’t have to talk about it. I’ll do it.’ And I had the idea, ‘[It’ll be] in a restaurant!'”
As for her character’s daring gag, Ryan explained, “The comedy of Sally is so behavioral. It’s not so much talking, it’s doing, so it was very logical. It wasn’t hard to do.”
