When Harry Met Sally star Billy Crystal has made a surprising confession about his iconic role.
Speaking in an interview with People Magazine, Crystal reflected on working with the late director Rob Reiner in the 1989 film.
Crystal told the outlet that he wasn’t initially Reiner’s first choice for the role of Harry Burns. “It was difficult in that I was not his first choice for Harry.”
“I said, ‘Listen, when he wants me, if he wants me, then he wants me. But I know he’s seeing other people, which he should do,’” Crystal added.
Noting that he already knew about the actors who were being considered for the role, like Albert Brooks, Tom Hanks and others. “I knew who some of them were and I’m going, ‘Oh, he’ll get it.’”
However, one day Reiner called him and said, “I always knew it was you, but you have to see them. You have to see these [others] because you never…”
“I said, ‘Of course.’ So he said, ‘Please read it.’ And I said, ‘Someone snuck it to me. So I read it. Guess what? I don’t like it.’ And then we laughed, laughed, laughed,” Crystal recalled further. “And then I said, ‘I have a lot of ideas.’ He said, ‘Come on, we’ll start tomorrow. Let’s go to work.'”
On the other hand, Billy Crystal also shared the difficult part of telling Rob Reiner “to get out of the way so I can then step in and be this guy,” about the role of Harry.
It is pertinent to mention that When Harry Met Sally was released on July 21, 1989, in the United States. Moreover, Rob Reiner died at age 78 on December 14, 2025, in Los Angeles, California.
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