Yahoo Lifestyle Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal Recreate the Iconic Fake Orgasm Scene from “When Harry Met Sally” for Hellmann's 2025 Super Bowl Ad (Exclusive)
"It felt the same," says Crystal, who spoke exclusively with PEOPLE about reuniting 35 years later at N.Y.C.'s Katz' Deli. Get all the behind-the-scenes details!
Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal are back at Katz’s Deli — and we’ll have what they’re having.
More than 35 years after When Harry Met Sally introduced one of the most-quoted scenes in rom-com history, Ryan and Crystal reunited in a Super Bowl commercial for Hellmann’s.
The ad sees the pair reviving the 1989 movie’s title characters at the New York City deli, where Harry tells Sally, “I can’t believe they let us back in this place.”
“Why?” Sally asks, to which he responds, “Hello …”
“Nobody remembers that,” Sally insists.
They’re, of course, referring to the classic movie moment where Harry says he doesn’t believe any of the women he’s slept with have ever faked an orgasm and Sally proceeds to offer a convincing demonstration right in the middle of the restaurant. “I’ll have what she’s having,” deadpans a fellow diner. (Trivia alert: It's actually the director Rob Reiner's mother, Estelle, who delivers the now-famous line.)
The ad then shows the duo bite into their respective sandwiches, but Sally admits hers “isn’t doing it.”
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Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan in Katz's Deli in 1989The solution? Sally squeezes a healthy serving of Hellmann’s mayonnaise onto her rye bread, and signals her approval by re-enacting her famous performance with gusto. “This one’s real,” Billy remarks. Actress Sydney Sweeney makes a cameo to deliver the “I’ll have what she’s having” catchphrase.
Crystal tells PEOPLE the timing was right to revisit the beloved movie, written by the late Nora Ephron.
“It was our 35th anniversary of the film, and it's the first time that we've been offered something like that,” he says. “It was a really fun idea, and the approach was right.”
“They were so respectful of the movie and of the scene too,” Ryan tells PEOPLE of Hellmann’s. “They came to us with just an enormous amount of respect for that, for the source material and for the characters.”
And as for sitting across the table from each other at the famed N.Y.C. deli once again, Crystal says, “It felt the same.”
Ryan remembers the shoot for the original Katz’s scene lasting “all day,” during which she experienced “a lot of trepidation and nerves.”
“Initially, it was like, ‘Oh, what are these sounds going to be?’ All the levels. I don't know if I'm going to get help,” she recalls.
Fortunately, Reiner offered her plenty of guidance. “Rob had so many significant and interesting sounds to inspire me with,” Ryan says.
Crystal recalls: “He did one and he took me aside and he said, ‘Oh, I shouldn't have done that. I just had an orgasm in front of my mother.”
Hellmann's
Sydney Sweeney makes a cameoBoth actors agreed Sweeney did the line justice in the commercial.
“She's adorable,” Crystal says of the Anyone But You star. “That's a big deal. It's an iconic line and it's a big honor to get to do that. And a heavy burden.”
“It was game and fun and loose and ballsy and just seemed to be having a blast while she was there,” Ryan adds. “She's a completely adorable person.”
The pair also reflected on why the Katz’s scene has continued to resonate in pop culture for more than three decades.
“Back then, no one had ever attempted to talk about that,” Crystal says, noting it evolved from a script meeting, during which the “concept of women faking orgasms” came up. “I think it just took everyone's breath away.”
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Ryan says it’s “really just a well-constructed scene.”
“It pays off the way both Sally's funny is behavioral, Harry's funny is more verbal and reactive,” she explains. “That was important, how Billy reacted to her. So it just sort of pulled all together in one scene, everything about the characters and sort of delivered on the promise of the premise.”
“And she teaches him a lesson at the same time,” Crystal adds. “And doesn't care where she is, doesn't care that people are watching.”
A teaser for the Hellmann’s commercial, released last week, paid tribute to Sally’s notoriously detailed ordering style when eating out.
“I didn't know that you could order like that until I played Sally,” Ryan says. “I didn't realize that you could be that specific. When I was in New York, I never did that. … In L.A., there was more sort of acceptance of tailoring your order. Now, of course, everyone does it.”
“That was a real Nora thing though,” Crystal notes of Ephron.
“She made it more permissible,” Ryan adds.
Read the original article on People
