The dreaded phone scene

One scene in particular proved to be a total nightmare!

For the moment where Harry and Sally call their best friends Jess (Bruno Kirby) and Marie (Carrie Fisher) it took the four actors 61 hours to get the perfect take!

Rob Reiner recalled: “On the surface, that scene looks like the simplest thing in the world – four people on the phone.

“What people don’t understand is that there is no way to cut away if someone makes even the smallest mistake.”

The cast actually got incredibly close around the 50th take, though one final error meant they had to go back to the beginning yet again!

The director continued: “The last part of the scene is Bruno and Carrie in bed. And Bruno had the last line. And he blew it. So we had to go back to the beginning. You just start over. What are you going to do?”

In order to achieve the correct speed of the scene, three cameras were used that filmed the actors in real-time on separate sets, while they spoke to each other over a real telephone line.