Just like in "An Affair to Remember," New York City's Empire State Building figured prominently in the plot of "Sleepless in Seattle." Unfortunately, the production was having trouble securing it. Norah would yell cut and he would go off and play. "He was effortless working with Tom," Carlson said. "Nora unfortunately had to let him go." Fortunately, she remembered Los Angeles kid Ross Malinger from auditions and brought him in. "He froze across from Hanks," Carlson said. The next big obstacle Ephron faced was when the first young actor playing Jonah, Nathan Watt, didn't work out. Hanks would go on to star in Ephron's "You've Got Mail" and her Broadway play "Lucky Guy." It was also the start of their creative collaboration, Carlson said.
Ephron invited Hanks to help her rewrite the character, which resulted in a grumpier, funnier Sam.
She said Hanks told Ephron that Sam sounded too wimpy and that even his son, Jonah, had better lines. Like Sam, who was looking for love after losing his wife and becoming a single dad to his 8-year-old son, Hanks needed a second chance.īut Carlson said Ephron wasn't entirely convinced that Hanks could measure up to Cary Grant, the star of the classic "An Affair to Remember," the film that inspired "Sleepless." Once she sat down with him, Carlson said, any doubts Ephron had that Hanks was not leading man material were washed away by "sheer force of his personality."īut after Hanks arrived in Seattle for the filming, Carlson said he began to get cold feet. Carlson said at the time Hanks was in a bit of a career slump, tired of playing the goofy guy who could never grow up and looking for more meaningful roles. Hanks and Ephron met for the first time at the Beverly Hill's Polo Lounge. And then she went after the guy she really wanted, Tom Hanks. She convinced Ryan to star in the film without her husband. But Ephron didn't think he was funny enough, Carlson said. When it came to casting Sally's love interest, Sam Baldwin, Ryan's husband Dennis Quaid was in talks to co-star opposite her.
She called up Meg Ryan, whom she'd made friends with on the set of "When Harry Met Sally," and got her to sign on. After she was brought in by producer Gary Foster to rework the script for "Sleepless in Seattle" and, in turn, brought in her sister Delia to help, Ephron insisted that she was the one to direct it. The film earned only lukewarm reviews and did poorly at the box office. Ephron had already written the screenplays for "Heartburn" and "Silkwood," for which she received an Academy Award nomination.įollowing the success of 1989's "When Harry Met Sally," she made her directorial debut with "This is My Life," based on Meg Wolizer's novel. Reiner brought Ephron on to help write Sally's character after realizing he needed help creating a woman's voice, Carlson said. Harry Hamburg/NY Daily News via Getty ImagesĬarlson said Ephron has become so associated with the romantic comedy genre that she is even given credit for "When Harry Met Sally," a film she wrote that Rob Reiner directed.
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She offered a path on how to do it and how to do it without apology, with a rejection of gender barriers." "For young women writers, Nora Ephron's sheer existance was a revelation. "Her legacy is a little like how RBG is a feminist icon for young women lawyers," Carlson said, referring to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. More significantly, she did it at a time when women's voices were often disregarded and few women filmmakers worked in Hollywood. "Nora Ephron did not invent the romantic comedy, but she did change it in so many different ways," Erin Carlson, the author of "I'll Have What She's Having: How Nora Ephron's Three Iconic Films Saved the Romantic Comedy," told ABC News.Įphron, a New York City journalist turned filmmaker, brought back the happy ending while creating edgy, funny and relatable characters. Before this latest rebirth of the romantic comedy, there was the pioneering writer-director Nora Ephron, who breathed new life into the genre with her films "When Harry Met Sally," "You've Got Mail" and "Sleepless in Seattle," which celebrates its 25th anniversary today.
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