Harry met Sally all over again this week.
Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan reunited Thursday at the 2019 TCM Classic Film Festival in Los Angeles for a special screening of their classic 1989 comedy, “When Harry Met Sally,” in honor of the rom-com's 30th anniversary.
Crystal, 71, said he and director Rob Reiner, who was also at the event, knew the film was going to be a hit during an early test screening — especially when they saw the audience react to the legendary scene in which Ryan’s character fakes an orgasm in a restaurant.
“(It was) the first time people saw it and it was the first time the orgasm scene — I have to call it that — played, and the laughs were insanely great,” Crystal told “Entertainment Tonight.” “When that scene ended, we realized he and I were holding hands because it was so intense in the theater, the laughs were so amazing, that we knew that there was something special.”
That scene is one of the most famous in cinematic history, but Reiner said he worked hard to get Ryan to give it her all.
“For the first couple of times, she wasn’t as committed as she was when we eventually got it,” Reiner told “Entertainment Weekly” earlier this year. “She was nervous. In front of extras and the crew and everything, and you’re having to pretend to have an orgasm in front of everybody! She did it half-hearted the first few times. I kept saying, ‘No, you’ve got to really go after it. You’ve got to do it full-out.’”
Ryan, 57, said the film was perfectly suited for her and Crystal.
“It’s the kind of music Billy and I knew how to play together,” she told the audience at the screening, People reported.
And audiences agreed. The film was a critical and commercial smash. Crystal, Ryan and Reiner all snagged Golden Globe nominations, and Nora Ephron’s script earned her an Oscar nod.
If you’re thinking that “When Harry Met Sally” may join the growing list of popular films that get remade or rebooted, well, think again.
“We talked about that for years and years and years,” Crystal told “Entertainment Tonight.” “And for those of us who believe in happily ever after, that's where they are and that's where they should be.”