Billy Crystal Reflects on ‘When Harry Met Sally’ After Visiting Katz’s Deli for the First Time Since Filming

Billy Crystal is reflecting on When Harry Met Sally more than 30 years after it was released.

During an appearance on CBS Mornings, the Emmy winner sat down with morning show host Gayle King at Katz’s Deli, one of the iconic locations from the 1989 film. It was the first time the actor had visited the New York City deli since they filmed there.

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“It’s an amazing phenomenon that this has touched people, and this little piece of history here in New York City,” Crystal said before sharing where the film sits with him all these years later.

“It’s actually more important as time goes by because people fall in love every day,” he continued. “People fall out of love every day. People find each other, they lose each other every day. And new generations keep finding When Harry Met Sally. We’re forever young in that movie, and we represent them. They relate to us.”

Elsewhere in the conversation, the Monsters Inc. voice star explained that he felt Rob Reiner was the perfect director for the ’80s rom-com because he let the stars play while filming and add things as they went along.

One of the things Crystal brought to the production that wasn’t originally planned was when he first asks Sally (Meg Ryan) out while they’re at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and he begins speaking in a silly accent.

Sally and Harry’s visit to the deli is one of the film’s most iconic scenes of the film, with Ryan’s character making loud, fake orgasm sounds right smack in the middle of the popular restaurant. The You’ve Got Mail star recently shared that her son, fellow actor Jack Quaid, finds that scene embarrassing.

“We probably did that over and over and over again,” Ryan previously said of filming that part of When Harry Met Sally. “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. My daughter was here, and everybody was on speaker, and they were like, ‘Mom, this is a very unique embarrassment.’”

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