The elaborate apple pie order that inspired thousands of elaborate apple pie orders.
We couldnt fit them all here.
The ride is filled with bickering, musings about male-female relationships, and grape-spitting.
Credit: Castle Rock/Nelson/Columbia/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock
The thing about Billy is he comes off as this sweet guy, Reiner says.
I wanted to make him a little bit rougher around the edges to start.
So we came up with this idea of him eating the grapes.
Everett Collection
Indeed, this detail wasnt in the original script.
[Billy] said, I can just be spitting the seeds out the window.
Thats what gave Harry a little bit more abruptness.
Everett Collection
Billy and I just came up with that on set as we were doing it.
I said, I cant believe the qualifications you have on how the dish should be served!
Lets put it right in the script.
MGM
Meg gave that performance three or four times, and it was unbelievably perfect, Reiner says.
So good, in fact, that Ryan did it repeatedly in one, meaning without a cut.
Not much, Reiner admits.
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She did it half-hearted the first few times.
I kept saying, No, youve got to really go after it.
Youve got to do it full-out.
I [told Meg], Do whatever you want to do, says Reiner.
There was nothing in the script; we just asked her, How would you convey baby talk?
He says of the final drawing: Its so perfectly unclear!
The Sex Part
This to me shows you how brilliant an actress Meg is, Reiner enthuses.
We talk about comedy-anger this is comedy-cry, Reiner says.
The camera stays on Kirby and Fisher throughout.
It seems [like] the simplest scene, Reiner says.
But youve got Billy on the phone with Bruno and Carrie on the phone with Meg.
Sound people, when they look at it, they go, How the hell did you do that?
They cant figure it out.
It was all on the same soundstage.
Its almost like doing a recording in a studio.
The phones were all hooked up to each other, because there are no cuts, if you notice….
If somebody makes a mistake and its a three- to four-page scene you cant cover it.
You cant cut away to anything.
You have to do it over again.
So how many times did they venture to get it right?
We shot it 61 times!
We did one I think 54 in, and we did it: They hung up the phones perfectly.
Then Bruno blew his last line.
So we had to start over again!
Fittingly, much of it was in Crystals words.
Sally replies with the most romantic I hate you in movie history.
Shes fallen in love, and she wants to be with him.
But then Reiner met his future wife, Michele Singer, during filming.
He found the happy ending hed stopped believing in and completed the film as we know it.
