Posted 4 minutes agoI Genuinely Can't Watch "When Harry Met Sally..." The Same Way After Learning These 40 FactsThe original ending was VERY different.by Jenna GuillaumeBuzzFeed ContributorFacebookPinterestLink When Harry Met Sally..., written by Nora Ephron, directed by Rob Reiner, and starring Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal, is arguably the best rom-com of all time. Columbia Rob Reiner's tragic death has had me thinking about the movie a lot - so I took a deep dive into the making of When Harry Met Sally..., and discovered a lot of interesting, hilarious, and heartwarming facts along the way: 1. Rob Reiner and Nora Ephron initially met over lunch so Rob could pitch her a different movie, but she rejected it before they'd even ordered. MGM / Via youtube.com The next time they met, she rejected another idea of his. When he then briefly mentioned he was interested in exploring the way sex can ruin a friendship between a straight man and woman, Nora got excited and immediately knew how she'd structure the movie. MGM / Via youtube.com 2. Nora Ephron interviewed both Rob Reiner and producer Andrew Scheinman about their dating lives for inspiration for the script, describing it as a "horrifying experience." Kevin Winter / Getty Images 3. While Nora Ephron worked on a number of drafts of the script, Rob Reiner shot both Stand by Me and The Princess Bride, before coming back together with Nora to focus on developing and making When Harry Met Sally... Columbia, Act III Communications 4. The character of Harry was very heavily inspired by Rob Reiner and his experience of being single after divorce (from Penny Marshall, with whom he was married from 1971 to 1981). Ron Galella / Getty Images "Harry Burns is basically Rob Reiner," Nora Ephron said. "He was neurotic, he was in love with his neuroses, and it was very charming and funny. So I just thought - that's Harry." 5. Meanwhile, Sally was partially inspired by Nora Ephron, and many of her quirks, including her particular way of ordering food, came straight from the screenwriter herself. Ron Galella / Getty Images Rob Reiner told her, after witnessing her ordering one day, "This has to be in the movie." 6. It was Rob Reiner's idea to include the documentary-style interviews with couples throughout the movie - he was inspired to do so after asking entertainment executive Alan Horn's dad how he met his wife, and watching the reserved old man light up. Columbia The interviews in the movie were used to reinforce the idea that "everyone has a story," and that Harry and Sally's was just another story. 7. The old couples are all actors, but the stories they tell were inspired by real people - mostly people at the production company that Nora Ephron interviewed. Columbia The exception was the story of the first couple that appears, in which the man talks about seeing his wife for the first time and saying to his friend, "See that girl? I'm going to marry her," and two weeks later, they were married. That story was the original one that inspired the interstitials, told by Alan Horn's father. 8. The creative team had trouble deciding on a title for the movie, and Rob Reiner even ran a competition amongst the crew on set, offering a case of champagne for whoever could come up with a title that stuck. Hulton Archive / Getty Images 9. Titles used before the final one was decided on included "Scenes From a Friendship," "How We Met," "When They Met," "Boy Meets Girl, ""Just Friends," "It Had To Be You," and "Harry, This Is Sally" - which was the one Nora Ephron liked best, even more than When Harry Met Sally... MGM / Via youtube.com 10. Rob Reiner said he didn't like the title When Harry Met Sally until he came up with the idea to add an ellipsis at the end. "The three dots were a big thing for me," he said, revealing that once he added them, When Harry Met Sally... became the title for him. Columbia 11. Even though he thought Billy Crystal would make a good Harry from the start, Rob Reiner talked to several actors about the role - including Albert Brooks, Tom Hanks, Richard Dreyfuss, and Michael Keaton - before offering it to Billy. Mediapunch / Getty Images, Jim Smeal / Getty Images, Vinnie Zuffante / Getty Images, Ron Galella, Ltd. / Getty Images The pair had been best friends since playing onscreen buddies in All in the Family, and Rob was worried that casting Billy as Harry might put their friendship at risk if something went wrong in the movie. Billy, meanwhile, really wanted the role but thought Rob wasn't interested in him for it, since he was talking to so many other actors. CBS 12. Molly Ringwald auditioned for the role of Sally. Bob Riha Jr / Getty Images 13. When Harry Met Sally... was Meg Ryan's first leading role, and she dropped out of Steel Magnolias, in which she was signed on to play Shelby, in order to play Sally (Julia Roberts, of course, took on the role of Shelby in Steel Magnolias in her place). Tri-Star 14. Billy Crystal said there was just one problem with worki