When Harry Met Sally: One Scene 'Perfectly Sums Up The Movie' - Here's Why It Was Cut
More than three decades after its initial release, the romantic comedy "When Harry Met Sally" remains one of the signature films of its genre, with 91% and 89% approval ratings from critics and audiences, respectively, at Rotten Tomatoes. It features such memorable moments as Sally's famous deli scene and a memorable debate about whether a heterosexual man and woman can truly be friends without sex getting in the way of the friendship.
Nora Ephron, who wrote the film, said there was another scene she penned for the original draft that she felt perfectly summed up the movie's message, but also had to admit that it did not belong in the final version. Insider reported that her 2012 book, "The Most of Nora Ephron," contained notes from the making of the film, including some that referenced a scene where Harry (Billy Crystal) and Sally (Meg Ryan) discuss writing a movie about their path to romance, which begins as a friendship and develops mostly through deep and meaningful conversations.
In the deleted scene, Sally puts forth the idea for the hypothetical film. "Two people become friends at the end of the next major relationship of their lives and get each other to the next major relationship of their lives," Sally says, according to the script. Harry initially objects that it doesn't sound like a typical Hollywood blockbuster proposal, saying, "We don't do anything visual. We just sit in restaurants and talk, or we sit on the phone and talk, or we sit in your apartment or my apartment and talk."
In the end, Ephron decided to scrap the scene after deciding that it was a bit too on-the-nose to be included in the film.
Nora Ephron later published the film's screenplay along with some personal observations
Nora Ephron's reluctance to include the scene in the film may be due to the similarity between Harry and Sally's scripted conversation and one she had with director Rob Reiner. In one of the notes included in her book, Ephron said Reiner referred to "When Harry Met Sally" as a "talk piece," and went on to paraphrase Harry's objection to Sally's movie script proposal. "There are no chase scenes," he said. "No food fights. This is walks, apartments, phones, restaurants, and movies."
The scene's exclusion certainly doesn't take anything away from Harry and Sally's story or weaken the relationship they build throughout the film. Still, it's easy to understand Ephron's explanation that it felt a little too close to her conversations with Rob Reiner to be included in the film.
Fortunately for filmgoers and couples who formed strong relationships on the "When Harry Met Sally" model, Ephron was able to convince Reiner that a "talk piece" made for a compelling love story, and a timeless and beloved rom-com was born.
In 1990, the year after the film's release, Ephron published the film's screenplay, along with an 11-page introduction. In it, Ephron explained that where Reiner simply felt that men and women couldn't be friends, she further saw a fundamental difference between how the two genders viewed friendship. "The truth is that men don't want to be friends with women," Ephron wrote. "Men know they don't understand women, and they don't much care. Women, on the other hand, are dying to be friends with men. Women know they don't understand men, and it bothers them."