The couples in the interview segments of When Harry Met Sally… are a mix of real stories and actors performing them , not real couples speaking on camera as themselves.

Quick Scoop

  • The love stories told in the between-scenes interviews were inspired by real couples’ accounts gathered during the film’s development.
  • Those stories were then rewritten into scripted monologues and performed by actors, rather than by the actual couples.
  • Harry and Sally themselves are fictional characters, but their dynamic was loosely inspired by the real-life friendship between director Rob Reiner and Billy Crystal, and by Nora Ephron’s own experiences and observations.

So, are the couples “real”?

If by “real” you mean real people on screen telling their own true love stories , then no — the couples you see are actors playing parts based on true stories.

If you mean “based on real relationships” , then yes — many of their anecdotes grew out of real interviews Ephron and the filmmakers conducted with people about how they met and fell in love.

In early drafts, the production interviewed real people and used their material, but Reiner ultimately chose to have actors perform those true stories in a unified style for the film.

Harry and Sally themselves

  • Harry and Sally are not specific real individuals; they are fictional rom‑com leads.
  • Their personalities and conversations echo Reiner and Crystal’s own friendship, such as the split‑screen phone‑and-TV scenes that came from their real habits.

This blend of real-inspired details with fully scripted, acted scenes is a big part of why the movie still feels so authentic and relatable today.

Bottom note: Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.