18 details even the biggest fans of 'When Harry Met Sally...' might not know

• "When Harry Met Sally..." is a classic, but fans may not know about these fascinating filming facts.

• Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan were both not first choice for the titular roles.

• One scene in particular took more than 60 takes and the film almost had a very different name.

The character of Sally Albright was based on the film's screenwriter Nora Ephron.

Like the character, Ephron primarily worked as a journalist, although by the time "When Harry Met Sally" was released, she had already penned two scripts – "Silkwood" (1983) which was co-written with Alice Arlen, and "Heartburn" (1986) which was adapted from her deeply personal novel based on her own divorce.

Many of Sally's quirks were taken directly from Ephron, including her penchant for precise food orders. According to IMDb, several years after the movie was released, Ephron was asked by a stewardess whether she had seen the film after she exhibited her trademark pickiness while ordering on a flight.

Likewise, Harry Burns was inspired by director Rob Reiner.

Ephron admitted she wrote the screenplay with her close friend and collaborator Rob Reiner in mind as Harry. Because of this, the two title characters, played by Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan, didn't actually end up together in her first draft.

Instead, the film ended with them crossing paths years later and was simply a meditation on contemporary dating.

The desire to make a film about dating in New York City in the 1980s as thirtysomethings came from Reiner and Ephron's own experience as new singletons.

Ephron had split from her second husband, Carl Bernstein, in 1979, and Reiner, too, went through a devastating breakup. In 1981, he divorced his wife of ten years, director and actor Penny Marshall, and found himself back in the dating pool.

The film's ending was changed after Reiner met his future wife and had his faith in love restored.

Reiner was introduced to his future wife, photographer Michele Singer, while making "When Harry Met Sally," and decided to change the ending of the film.

Speaking to AV Club, Reiner explained that originally he "couldn't figure out how I was going to get with anybody," but that all changed when he met Singer, who he went on to marry the same year the film was released. They have three children and are still together.

Meg Ryan can be seen looking off-screen at Reiner during one point in the movie.

During the scene in which Harry and Sally put on silly accents while walking around a museum, Crystal was told what to do while his costar was simply told to improvise.

So when Harry delivered the line: "But, I would be proud to partake of your pecan pie," and Sally laughs and shoots a look to her left, she was actually looking to Reiner for direction.

According to Crystal, Reiner silently prompted Ryan to keep going. Audiences can catch the brief moment Ryan gathers herself and realizes that they aren't going to cut.

While making an appearance on "The View" in 2014, Crystal explained: "That scene was all improvised. I didn't tell Meg I was gonna do this."

"I said to Rob and Nora Ephron, I have an idea that he starting to fall in love with her, but they don't know it. When you start to get friendly with someone, you start doing a cute voice. So I had this idea for a guy who would [launches into the voice] talk like this to her. And Rob said, 'Just go!' You saw her look off to the right? She looks at Rob to go, 'What is going on?'"

A number of scenes were improvised, including the Pictionary game scene, which resulted in the memorable line "baby fish mouth."

The Pictionary game Harry and Sally play with friends was another scene Reiner told the cast to completely improvise, in the hopes of creating an authentic moment that would ring true to audiences — and it sure does.

Sally is given the prompt "baby talk" to draw and grows increasingly frustrated when her teammates can't decipher her frenetic drawing.

"We improvised our way into the scene and were shouting made-up answers when Bruno Kirby hurled his three magic words: Baby. Fish. Mouth. It was like the heavens opened up to receive us," Lisa Jane Persky, who played their friend Alice, recalled to Vulture.

Meanwhile, Reiner told EW he was delighted at how Ryan was able to create a "perfectly unclear" drawing, just like they were hoping.

He said: "There was nothing in the script; we just asked her, 'How would you convey 'baby talk'?"

The four-way phone call scene took more than 60 takes to get right.

The scene in which Harry and Sally call up their respective best friends Jess (Bruno Kirby) and Marie (Carrie Fisher) for some advice after they sleep together for the first time turned out to be the trickiest scene in the film to shoot.

According to the film's director, the scene had to be synchronized perfectly as they didn't use any modern technology like green screens or camera cuts. Instead, it was shot in real-time on three separate sets that were all connected by a real telephone line to get the timing just right.

"On the surface, that scene looks like the simplest thing in the world — four people on the phone," he told USA Today. "What people don't understand is that there is no way to cut away if someone makes even the smallest mistake."

The actors rehearsed intensely to nail the four pages of dialogue and spent a day on set shooting 61 takes before they had it in the can, according to the outlet.

What's more, in an earlier take the cast and crew had managed to pull it off without any hiccups and were about to call it a day when a sound technician informed them that a flock of birds rustling in the studio rafters had ruined it.

Fans can actually visit the restaurant and sit at the same table where Sally's fake orgasm scene was filmed.

The scene where Sally convincingly fakes an orgasm while sitting in a restaurant full of other diners was filmed at Katz's Delicatessen, an actual restaurant in Manhattan.

The two disagree over whether men can recognize when a woman has — as Harry puts it — had "an okay time," in bed which prompts Sally to put down her sandwich and show Harry just how easy it is for women to fake it.

It's arguably the most memorable scene in the film, and Katz's has fully embraced their status as a tourist hotspot for fans of the film and has honored the table where the scene took place with a plaque that reads: "Where Harry met Sally...hope you have what she had!"

The woman who delivers the film's iconic line, "I'll have what she's having," is the director's mother, Estelle Reiner.

After Sally returns to her meal, the camera cuts to a nearby customer who deadpans: "I'll have what she's having" when a waitress approaches her to take her order.

While she's simply credited as "Older Woman Customer" in the cast, she is actually director Reiner's own mother who just happened to be on set during filming that day.

The line was ranked 33rd on the American Film Institute's list of the Top 100 movie quotations, and upon her death at the age of 94 in 2008, The New York Times referred to Reiner in its obituary as the woman "who delivered one of the most memorably funny lines in movie history."

Reiner's mother isn't the only family member he cast in the film. His daughter plays Harry's much younger girlfriend, Emily.

Later on in the film, Harry and Sally are seen in new relationships. While Sally has met a guy named Julian, Harry has begun dating a woman named Emily who, as Sally notes, "is a little young for Harry."

The actor portraying Emily in the scene is actually Reiner's then 24-year-old daughter, Tracy Reiner.

Crystal noted the choice made things "slightly awkward" because he "knew her since she was a little girl" given his and the director's decades-long friendship, per E! News.

Reiner also makes a cameo of sorts. His voice can be heard during the film's first New Year's Eve party scene.

Harry and Sally decide to platonically be each other's dates for a New Year's Eve party halfway through the film. As they slow dance cheek-to-cheek, they realize that they might be harboring romantic feelings for each other.

In this scene, the off-camera voice that says, "Hey, everybody, ten seconds until new year," is actually Reiner's.

A lot of stars were considered for the role of Sally, including Molly Ringwald.

While we couldn't imagine anyone else in the role now, Ryan wasn't actually the first choice when it came to casting Sally — in fact, many other actors were considered before her.

Reiner reportedly originally wanted either Susan Dey, who at the time was best known for her role as Laurie Partridge on the sitcom "The Partridge Family," or '80s teen movie star Molly Ringwald.

While the casting department ran through a few more names, according to Crystal, as soon as Ryan's audition began, they knew the part was her's.

"It was like in a '40s movie when someone says, 'And then she walked in!'" Crystal said during a 30-year anniversary screening in 2019, per Variety.

Reiner added that "It was instant chemistry" between the two leads, convincing him to take a chance on Ryan, who had never played the lead in a movie before.

Similarly, the role of Harry was offered to quite a few leading men in Hollywood.

Crystal was also not who Reiner wanted for the film at first, but for a very different reason. He avoided casting Crystal as the two were best friends and Reiner was worried about working closely together on such a personal project.

Per Variety he said: "The fear I had was, 'What if you would [work] with a friend and it doesn't work out, are we going to destroy a friendship?"

Instead, Reiner looked to other actors working at the time, including Albert Brooks, who chose to turn down the part because he said the script read too much like a Woody Allen movie.

Other actors considered for the role included Tom Hanks — who said the movie was "too lightweight" for him — Michael Keaton, Harrison Ford, Bill Murray, and Richard Dreyfuss.

Reiner ultimately offered Crystal the part, noting that "it turned out way better than anything I could have imagined because not only was he great in the part, it made our friendship better."

Reiner left a clue about his follow-up film in "When Harry Met Sally…" and then included a callback to the rom-com in that very same film.

During the montage that plays following Harry and Sally's respective break ups, Harry can be seen reading Stephen King's "Misery" – and of course, skipping to the last page so that he knows how it ends.

It's a blink-or-you'll-miss-it moment that actually references the movie that Reiner was lining up to helm next. One year after "When Harry Met Sally…" was released, the James Caan and Kathy Bates adaptation hit cinemas.

What's more, Reiner also returned the nod in "Misery," as a VHS copy of the rom-com can be spotted during a scene set in a video rental store.

Although not intentional, the inspiration for one of Ephron's films can also be found in "When Harry Met Sally…"

The bookstore in which Harry and Sally have their third run-in was actually a real NYC book store, Shakespeare & Company, which at the time of shooting was located on the Upper West Side on the corner of West 81st & Broadway.

Screenwriter Ephron was shocked to discover in 1996 the store had shut down, possibly because of dwindling footfall thanks to a large Barnes & Noble that had moved into the neighborhood.

This ended up serving as inspiration for her film "You've Got Mail" (1998) which is loosely based on "The Shop Around the Corner" (1940) and explores the David and Goliath struggle between local stores and large national chains.

Reiner and Ephron struggled to come up with a title for the film.

Before deciding on the title, "When Harry Met Sally...," Ephron, Reiner, and producer Andrew Scheinman considered a number of options and even reportedly turned the naming process into a contest among the crew members.

The reward for picking the winning title was a full case of champagne, although it's not known if this was the way the film got it's name or if anyone ever got the prize.

Initially, they called the movie "Scenes From a Friendship," a rift on Ingmar Bergman's seminal "Scenes From a Marriage" (1973), but other titles that were considered include "Just Friends," "Boy Meets Girl," "It Had To Be You," "Harry, This Is Sally," and "How They Met."

Ultimately, the film was given the name "When Harry Met Sally…" with Reiner insisting on the ellipsis as it references the movie's storyteling structure.

The same karaoke machine that Harry and Sally tested out in the shop is later seen in Harry's apartment, meaning he purchased it instead of a basketball hoop.

When tasked with buying a housewarming gift for Jess and Marie, Harry and Sally get a little distracted in electronics store, The Sharper Image.

Although Harry is initially taken with a basketball hoop that he insist he "has to get," the two then stumble across something they both like the look of: a karaoke machine. They sing the "Oklahoma!" show tune "The Surrey with the Fringe on Top" together before they are interrupted by Harry's ex, Helen.

After this, they leave empty-handed and in the next scene, Sally is carrying a ribbon-wrapped houseplant, as per her original idea for a gift.

However, it seems that at some point, Harry returned to buy the karaoke machine. Towards the end of the movie, he is seen trying to get Sally to answer his calls by singing Petula Clark's "Call Me" with the help of the karaoke machine.

Interestingly, he hasn't purchased the high-tech basketball hoop, as he's also seen using a colander with its bottom cut out as a hoop later on in the film.

The six older couples who recount the stories of how they met were based on real people.

While they are played by actors, the married couple interviews that are peppered throughout the film were based on real people's lives and love stories that Reiner and Ephron collected throughout the filmmaking process.

Harry and Sally's own to-camera interview at the end of the film was completely improvised.

In a film with so many brilliant scenes that came from improvisation, it's fitting that "When Harry Met Sally…" ends with yet another completely ad-libbed moment. After their New Year's Eve kiss, the film jumps ahead to when Harry and Sally are happily married.

They appear on the same couch which has become familiar to viewers throughout the film, confirming the happy ending viewers have been rooting for.

Despite being completely improvised, the scene manages to encapsulate many of their characters' signature characteristics that made them fall for each other, including Sally's pickiness over food when describing their wedding cake which had "chocolate sauce on the side."

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