Meg Ryan says When Harry Met Sally restaurant scene makes her children feels a ‘very unique embarrassment’

Actor faked an ecstatic climax while starring opposite Billy Crystal in popular 1989 romcom

Meg Ryan has revealed her children’s response to one of her most memorable, yet “embarrassing”, scenes from When Harry Met Sally.

The romcom star featured in the popular 1989 movie opposite Billy Crystal. In one famous 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 fake a climax to prove a point. The performance prompts a fellow customer to say, “I’ll have what she’s having.”

This week, in conversation with comedy legend Carol Burnett for Interview Magazine, Ryan recounted a recent phone call she had with her 31-year-old son, the actor Jack Quaid, about the unforgettable deli 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.

Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal in ‘When Harry Met Sally’ (Shutterstock)

“He said, ‘You know you can go into that deli and there’s an arrow pointing down to the table where you shot that scene,’” Ryan continued.

The actor shares son Jack with her ex-husband Dennis Quad. In 2006, as a single mother, she adopted her daughter Daisy, 19.

Ryan has not appeared in a film since the 2015 drama Ithaca, which she also directed.

However, she is set to make her return alongside David Duchovny in What Happens Later, based on the play Shooting Star by Steven Dietz, who co-wrote the film alongside Ryan and playwright Kirk Lynn.

The co-stars play exes who are brought back together when they become stranded in an airport during a blizzard.

The movie’s official synopsis reads: “Two ex lovers, Bill (Duchovny) and Willa (Ryan) get snowed in at a regional airport overnight.

“Indefinitely delayed, Willa, a magical thinker, and Bill, a catastrophic one, find themselves just as attracted to and annoyed by one another as they did decades earlier. But as they unpack the riddle of their mutual past and compare their lives to the dreams they once shared, they begin to wonder if their reunion is mere coincidence, or something more enchanted.”

What Happens Later is set to be released in US cinemas on 13 October. A UK release date is yet to be announced.