The original ending of When Harry Met Sally saw the couple split up, but Rob Reiner fell in love and changed things

The 1989 romantic comedy When Harry met Sally is one of the best movies of all time, definitely one of the best romantic comedies, by the way. It set the stage for a generation of romantic comedies that always sought to find that perfect balance of storytelling, chemistry and comedy that made this film one of the greats. But it turns out that the original idea for the film called for a completely different ending, which saw the two stars parting ways at the end instead of the happy ending we know.

Director Rob Reiner I recently sat down with CNNIt’s Chris Wallace who talks about the film, and he explained that Harry and Sally originally didn’t end up together, saying:

“Harry and Sally didn’t get together. Because I had been married for ten years, I had been single for ten years and I couldn’t understand how I could ever be with anyone, and from that, When Harry Met Sally was born. And I hadn’t met anyone, so it would be the two of them seeing each other years later, talking, and then walking away from each other.

Before making the film, Reiner had been married from 1971 to 1981 to a fellow director Penny Marshall, but as he said, he had been alone for quite some time before he got into romance, and his outlook was pretty bleak. Reiner had previously spoken about making the film with the writer Nora Efron in an interview with Club AV, explaining how the story was based on his own experiences:

“It was totally based on us, yes. I mean, it started with me. Before she came on board, I was thinking about how I had been single: I had been married for 10 years and I had been single for 10 years. And during that time when I was single, I kept going in and out of different relationships, and they weren’t going very well. And I kept getting confused. How are friendships created? Does having sex ruin friendships? For all those questions that come up in the film, I said, “This has to be the basis for something here.” So I went to Nora and told her about it, and she said, “I like that idea,” and so she interviewed me. She was like a journalist and I told her all these stories of different things I had experienced. And she wrote these things and injected her experiences. One day, we were having lunch and she ordered, ‘This is on the side, this is on the side,’ and I said, ‘This has to be in a movie!’ I mean, it was crazy the way you ordered this food. So we put that in as Sally’s character trait.”

They say write what you know, and maybe that’s why the film turned out the way it did. Reiner went on in the original interview to reveal why we got the perfect cinematic ending we know and love, simply saying:

“I met my wife Michele, with whom I have been married for 35 years now, I met her while I was shooting the film. And I changed the ending.”

It’s good that Reiner’s heart softened and he was able to believe in love again. He gave us a fantastic movie and some classic quotes that will last a lifetime. “I’ll have what she’s having.”

via: CinemaBlend