Rob Reiner taught Meg Ryan how to fake an orgasm for 'When Harry Met Sally'

LOS ANGELES, July 11 (UPI) -- Meg Ryan received some unorthodox advice on the set of When Harry Met Sally.

The 52-year-old actress was a relative newcomer to Hollywood when the romantic comedy catapulted her to fame in 1989. Billy Crystal and Ryan starred as the eponymous Harry and Sally, a pair of friends who share chance encounters and romance over the years in New York City. One such encounter takes place at Katz's Deli in Manhattan, and director Rob Reiner tells the Huffington Post he helped coach the famous fake orgasm scene.

"Meg was nervous. Obviously you're in front of extras and all the crew members and everything," he shares. "So the first few times we did it, she did it kind of weak. It was a little tepid. I said, 'Look, let me show you what I want' after a few takes that weren't so good."

"I sat down opposite Billy," he details. "I'm sitting there and I'm pounding the table, and I'm going, 'Yes! Yes! Yes!' I'm doing the whole thing, and then I realized this is embarrassing -- I'm having an orgasm in front of my mother! And I go, 'Oh, God, what have I done here?'"

Reiner's mother Estelle cameos as a patron in the deli, and famously deadpans, "I'll have what she's having," after Ryan's fake orgasm in the movie. The film earned $92 million at the box office, and is widely considered a romantic comedy classic.

Reiner's next film, And So It Goes, stars Michael Douglas and Diane Keaton, and opens in theaters July 25.