Billy Crystal made a surprising revelation about one of the most beloved scenes from When Harry met Sally as he paid an emotional tribute to his late friend Rob Reiner.
During his conversation on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Crystal reflected on their decades-long friendship.
Crystal revealed that the film’s iconic phone conversation scenes were directly inspired by his own conversations with Reiner, who passed away in December 2025.
The actor recalled how the two would often spend hours on the phone and even watch movies Casablanca together from different locations.
Crystal said, “We could talk about anything. He was an uncle to my children.’
Adding: “When something good happens, or ‘Isn’t that crazy?’ I want to pick up the phone and call and say, ‘Did you see it?’ because that’s what we would do.”
Speaking of the scene When Harry met Sally, Crystal said: “In Harry and Sally there are many moments where Meg and I are really Rob and I.”
“He was going through a difficult divorce from Penny Marshall at the time, and we were constantly on the phone. And there were times when we would watch a movie together, like Casablanca, and we would do that back and forth,” Crystal recalled.
“We were looking, remember in the arena? We were going back and forth saying, ‘What about arena sailing? Maybe there’s Arena Yachts.'”
Additionally, Billy Crystal called Rob Reiner’s death a “profound loss for, dare I say it, humanity, because he was the most human person I’ve ever met.”
