'When Harry Met Sally': How orgasm scene was created

Billy Crystal has revealed how the orgasm scene was dreamt up. Photo / Supplied

Billy Crystal has revealed how that iconic orgasm scene from When Harry Met Sally came about.

To celebrate the film's 30th anniversary, the actor told The Hollywood Reporter the legendary scene wasn't in writer Nora Ephron's original script.

"We had a great pre-production with all of us (director Rob Reiner, co-star Meg Ryan and Ephron) contributing to the script, and Nora was very open about taking suggestions and adding her magic to it," Crystal said.

"We were able to create all these new things that weren't in the script — together, all of us, including the orgasm scene."

Crystal recalled that they only came up with the orgasm scene two weeks before filming began.

"We were in a meeting, and Nora said, 'I need something. There's something missing. There's the moment where Harry's now been screwing around. He's in revenge mode, and he's this cocky little stud. Maybe we do a scene about how women fake orgasms.'

"Rob (Reiner) was like, 'What are you talking about?' 'Well, women fake orgasms, Rob.' 'Really? They never fake one with me.' So now that becomes a line of dialogue.

"Then Meg said, 'I should have an orgasm! That would be hilarious.' And I went, 'In a public place like a restaurant.' Nora goes wild. And then we're all laughing. Then I said, 'And then we'll cut to an older woman who will say, "I'll have what she's having."

Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal were both nominated for Golden Globes for their work in When Harry Met Sally. Photo / File

"That's how it happened. That's how the movie got real, because of Meg and I and Nora and Rob sitting around, talking about, 'How can we make it better?'"

The orgasm scene was shot at Katz's Delicatessen in Manhattan and Crystal told THR he realised very quickly that it was an iconic scene.

"We were screening the movie in Burbank for the first time, and Rob (Reiner) and I are sitting in the back," he said.

"The movie's playing great, and now we come to the scene in the deli. When she starts faking it, they go berserk. I mean, like, berserk. You couldn't hear any dialogue. They laughed through the next scene. The roar, it was gigantic.

"I realised that Rob and I were now holding hands. We were gripping each other because it was so momentous a laugh."