Meg Ryan says Billy Crystal was the ‘perfect person’ to fake orgasm with in When Harry Met Sally

‘What a crazy thing to be famous for,’ said the romcom star

Meg Ryan has said that her co-star Billy Crystal was the “perfect person” to fake an orgasm with, referring to the infamous deli scene in the romcom When Harry Met Sally.

The actor featured in the hit 1989 movie opposite Crystal, and in one legendary scene, Ryan and Crystal’s characters, Sally and Harry, are dining in New York City’s famed Katz’s Delicatessen.

As the two are debating over whether or not Harry can actually decipher the difference between a woman’s real or faked orgasm, Sally unexpectedly begins to loudly pretend to climax, to prove a point. The performance prompts a fellow customer to say: “I’ll have what she’s having.”

Ryan reflected on the scene at the 30th Sarajevo Film Festival in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina on Tuesday (20 August), where she was being honoured with the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo for her work in film.

As the scene from the film was played on the screen at the Festival Centre (Bosnian Cultural Centre), during the talk moderated by Oscar-winning No Man’s Land director Danis Tanović, Ryan commented on the experience of faking the climax.

Commenting that she “[hadn’t] heard that in so long”, Ryan described her co-star Crystal as “the perfect person to fake an orgasm with”, adding drily: “What a crazy thing to be famous for.”

Discussing her new movie, What Happens Later, in which she stars alongside David Duchovny, the star described her experience of writing, directing and executive producing the new movie.

(Getty)

“There’s no doubt that for anybody older, roles are limited — for an actor,” she said. “But those limits don’t exist for a director, or a producer. And at a certain point you just want to say what you mean. And sometimes, that’s not about being an actor.”

Ryan previously admitted that her children found it difficult to watch her deli scene in When Harry Met Sally.

(Columbia Pictures)

(Columbia Pictures)

In conversation with comedy legend Carol Burnett for Interview Magazine last September, Ryan recounted a phone call she had with her 31-year-old son, the actor Jack Quaid, about the scene.

“It’s funny, my son just called me this morning and he’s in New York staying at a hotel that’s right across the street from Katz’s Deli,” Ryan said.

“My daughter was here and everybody was on speaker, and they were like, ‘Mom, this is a very unique embarrassment,’” the You’ve Got Mail actor said, laughing.