Interview with Rob Reiner “When Harry Met Sally…” – Now See Hear!

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Interview with Rob Reiner “When Harry Met Sally…”

March 13, 2026, Posted by: Stacie Seifrit-Griffin

Last week would have been Rob Reiner’s 79th birthday. His acting and film career have impacted our lives for close to 60 years, and at this Sunday’s Oscars ceremony, the Academy has planned a tribute to recognize his work.

Since his passing in December 2025, I’ve been binge watching a wide variety of his films. I find solace knowing that his humor, charm and kind smile are well documented and easy to visit anytime in the two dozen films that he directed, the iconic television shows that he starred in, and the countless interviews he gave over the years.

To date, Reiner has three films on the Library’s National Film Registry; “This is Spinal Tap” (1984) added in 2002, “The Princess Bride” (1987) added in 2016, and “When Harry Met Sally…” (1989) added in 2022. These only scratch the surface of his brilliance as a filmmaker.

In 2022, the Library of Congress spoke with him about “When Harry Met Sally…”” and I find his recollections of the making of the movie just as sweet and lovely as the film itself.

Interview with Rob Reiner, “When Harry Met Sally…” (1989)

On the inspiration for the movie

It started with having been married for 10 years and then divorced and single for 10 years. I was in and out of relationships, making a mess of everything and trying to figure out how I would ever get with another woman again. And that was the fodder that started percolating in my head as to how do men and women work with each other. What is the secret that brings people together?

I was having lunch with Nora Ephron at the Russian Tea Room of all places. I had another idea for a film, a courtroom drama, and I pitched that to her. She didn’t like that so much. And then I said, “I’ve been thinking about this whole idea of men and women, and can they be friends? Is there always a sexual component? And if there is, how do you balance that with friendship?” And she said, “Well, that’s something I’d be interested in doing.” At the time, I was calling it “Scenes from a Friendship.” It was like a takeoff of “Scenes from a Marriage,” the Ingmar Bergman film.

We started talking, and like the reporter that she was, she started interviewing me and asking me about what men think about in terms of women, what are they thinking when they’re in relationships, what do they think about sex, and all of that. I interviewed her and found out what her perspective was. I knew that if I was ever going to make a film like this, I had to have a woman’s perspective. I couldn’t certainly do it just by myself. I would never know what a woman felt. My take on life is that a man in heterosexual relationships spends his entire life trying to figure out what a woman is, and a woman her entire life is trying to figure out what a man is. So, I thought this would be the basis for the film and we started working on it.

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