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Billy Crystal Opens up About ‘When Harry Met Sally’ Legacy (December 2024) - Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist | Wave AI Podcast Notes

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Billy Crystal Opens up About ‘When Harry Met Sally’ Legacy (December 2024)

Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist

Sun Jun 29 2025

Willie gets together with Billy Crystal in NYU Tisch's "Jack Crystal Theater" named for his late father. Billy opens up about his time in film school at NYU and about his professor, the legendary film director Martin Scorsese. They chat about the enduring legacy of "When Harry Met Sally" and about his acclaimed new series, "Before." (Original broadcast date December 15, 2024)

Summary

Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist: Billy Crystal Opens Up About ‘When Harry Met Sally’ Legacy

Episode Overview In this engaging episode of NBC's "Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist," host Willie Geist sits down with Hollywood legend Billy Crystal to delve deep into Crystal's illustrious career, his personal journey, and the enduring legacy of his iconic film, When Harry Met Sally. Filmed in the historic Jack Crystal Theater at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, the conversation offers listeners an intimate look into Crystal's life both on and off the screen.

1. A Meaningful Setting: The Jack Crystal Theater

Timestamp: [00:55]

Willie Geist begins by highlighting the significance of the Jack Crystal Theater as the backdrop for their conversation. Named after Billy Crystal's father, Jack Crystal, a renowned bandleader and producer, the theater holds profound sentimental value for Crystal. He reminisces about his childhood experiences, performing alongside jazz legends and how these early exposures ignited his passion for entertainment.

Billy Crystal: “It's the greatest compliment you can have.” ([03:52])

Crystal emphasizes the honor of having the theater named after his father, reflecting on the inclusive and groundbreaking nature of Jack Crystal's productions, which integrated diverse musical talents during the 1950s and 60s.

2. The Genesis of a Comedy Icon

Timestamp: [07:15]

The conversation shifts to Crystal's early foray into comedy. Willie asks about the pivotal moments that solidified Crystal's commitment to entertainment.

Billy Crystal: “It's probably inevitable from that tap dance when you were five years old.” ([07:15])

Crystal credits his spontaneous tap dance performance at age five as the moment he became irrevocably hooked on performing. This early experience laid the foundation for his future in comedy and acting.

3. Exploring New Horizons: "Before" on Apple TV

Timestamp: [07:24]

Crystal discusses his latest endeavor, the dark series Before on Apple TV, portraying Dr. Eli Adler, a child psychiatrist. This role marks a departure from his traditional comedic persona, showcasing his versatility as an actor.

Billy Crystal: “It's a psychodrama thriller. It's the story of a pediatric psychiatrist dealing with a troubled young boy…” ([07:47])

He describes the series as a profound exploration of personal demons and self-discovery, highlighting the intense emotional demands of the role and the immersive method acting he employed.

Billy Crystal: “I was so immersed in Eli and fearless in what I would do…” ([12:56])

Crystal elaborates on his rigorous approach to character development, balancing intense filming schedules with personal life, and the challenges of maintaining his identity outside the character.

4. Building Bridges: Friendships in Hollywood

Timestamp: [33:15]

A significant portion of the interview delves into Crystal's enduring friendships within the entertainment industry, particularly his bond with Robert Klein.

Billy Crystal: “We auditioned over 700 kids in the US and Canada… but he was in London and I was in LA… He just blew me away.” ([17:48])

Crystal recounts the meticulous casting process for Before, emphasizing the exceptional talent of his young co-star, Jacoby Jupe, and the serendipitous nature of his collaboration with industry veterans like Carl Reiner and Norman Lear.

5. The Magic of "When Harry Met Sally"

Timestamp: [44:15]

Willie and Billy reflect on the enduring popularity of When Harry Met Sally, celebrating its 35-year legacy.

Billy Crystal: “There’s so much truth and love in that movie. There’s so much romance… it keeps happening.” ([44:34])

Crystal expresses gratitude for the film's lasting impact, noting how its themes of love and relationships continue to resonate with new generations. He shares anecdotes about audiences reaching out to him, showcasing the film's profound connection with viewers.

Billy Crystal: “We knew it was good. There's a wonderful script… it just was meant to be.” ([46:30])

He attributes the film's success to its impeccable script, chemistry with co-star Meg Ryan, and the perfect timing of its release, which captured the essence of New York City and the complexities of modern relationships.

6. Personal Reflections: 700 Sundays and Legacy

Timestamp: [49:05]

The discussion transitions to Crystal's heartfelt Broadway show, 700 Sundays, which narrates his family's journey and the loss of his father.

Billy Crystal: “It was such a moving and honest way to tell my story… and putting a face on grief as this boulder that I built.” ([49:15])

Crystal shares how performing 700 Sundays was a therapeutic process, allowing him to channel personal pain into art. He highlights the overwhelming response from audiences who found solace and strength through his story.

Billy Crystal: “I have a feeling there's plenty more ahead… that was so important to me.” ([52:27])

He reflects on the show's significance in his life and its role in helping others navigate their grief, emphasizing the universal nature of loss and the healing power of storytelling.

7. Looking Forward: Continuing the Journey

Timestamp: [53:06]

As the conversation wraps up, Crystal contemplates his ongoing legacy and the future.

Billy Crystal: “Do you think about that sometimes?” ([53:06])

He often thinks about what his father would have thought of his accomplishments, expressing hope that Jack Crystal would be proud of the man and artist he has become.

Billy Crystal: “You'll hear it anywhere out on the street tonight in a bar somewhere… that's all a great friendship still.” ([42:48])

Crystal underscores the importance of lasting friendships and meaningful work, hinting at future projects and the continuous evolution of his career.

Conclusion

The episode provides a comprehensive look into Billy Crystal's life, from his early inspirations in the Jack Crystal Theater to his pivotal roles in film and television. Crystal's candid reflections on his career milestones, personal losses, and enduring friendships offer listeners a profound understanding of the man behind the iconic performances. His discussion about When Harry Met Sally and 700 Sundays underscores the blend of humor and heart that defines his legacy, making this episode a must-listen for fans and newcomers alike.

Notable Quotes:

Billy Crystal: “It's the greatest compliment you can have.” ([03:52])
Billy Crystal: “It's probably inevitable from that tap dance when you were five years old.” ([07:15])
Billy Crystal: “It's a psychodrama thriller. It's the story of a pediatric psychiatrist dealing with a troubled young boy…” ([07:47])
Billy Crystal: “I was so immersed in Eli and fearless in what I would do…” ([12:56])
Billy Crystal: “We knew it was good. There's a wonderful script… it just was meant to be.” ([46:30])
Billy Crystal: “It was such a moving and honest way to tell my story… and putting a face on grief as this boulder that I built.” ([49:15])

Additional Information: Listeners can watch Billy Crystal's series Before on Apple TV and follow upcoming episodes of "Sunday TODAY with Willie Geist" on NBC. For more insights and behind-the-scenes conversations, subscribing to the "Sunday Sitdown" podcast is highly recommended.

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Transcript

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Willie Geist (0:55)

Hey guys, Willie Geist here with another episode of the Sunday Sit down podcast. My thanks as always for clicking and listening along. I am absolutely thrilled to bring you my conversation this week with a man who truly needs no introduction. He is a legend in Hollywood. He is a legend in comedy. He is Billy Crystal. I will just give you a little background about our location. Sometimes when we do these interviews, we reach out to the team around our guests and say, is there anywhere you'd like to do the interview? Is there anywhere meaningful to you? And Billy Crystal immediately said, I would love to do the interview in the Jack Crystal Theater at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts in New York City. Why? Because that theater is named for Billy's father, Jack Crystal, who was a band leader, a guy who in the 1950s had a record label, a guy who kind of brought in all these different sounds and these voices into that very building, that space. That, of course, has been changed and renovated since. But Billy Crystal, basically, as a young kid growing, grew up going to shows at this very theater where he and I are sitting and talking. And it was the first time he ever got up on a stage. His love for performing and entertainment was sparked in that room. So it was very special to sit there with him inside those four walls in the Jack Crystal Theater, now named for his father. So I don't need to tell you about Billy Crystal's career. I don't need to tell you about snl. I don't need to tell you about Harry Met Sally, City Slickers, Monsters, Inc. Everything he has done over the course of his care, getting his break with the Dean Martin celebrity roast of Muhammad Ali in 1976 that sparked a friendship between the two for some 40 years. Now, Billy Crystal, obviously so known for comedy, is in a very dark series on Apple TV. It's called Before. He plays Dr. Eli Adler, who's a child psychiatrist caring for this very troubled young boy who kind of exposes Crystal's character's own demons and makes him explore all these other things about himself. It's a really heavy, dark show, but he's so good in it. It's called before, so I'll get out of the way, sit back, relax, and just imagine how significant and meaningful and moving it is for Billy Crystal to have kind of borne his career in this room with his dad, who he so reveres and who he lost when he was just 15 years old and who was the inspiration for his Tony winning Broadway show 700 Sundays, and to be able to be in a position in his life and his career to have a theater named after his dad. So sit back, relax, and enjoy Bill Crystal right now on the Sunday Sit down podcast.

Billy Crystal (9:43)

Yeah, but it wasn't a conscious effort or thought process of, I gotta do something. No, I'm fine. It just was an amazing character to play, and I hadn't intended to play him. I was going to produce it. The short, long strokes of it is this started as a show called Deathbed, and it was a story loosely based on my grandmother's tapes that she made before she died about how the family came to America. And, like, when she first comes on the tape, I want you to know that my grandfather was the tailor for Tsar Nicholas, and that when the program started, they got us out of there because they were going to kill us because we were Jews. That's how the family came to America. And I went, oh, my God. Oh, my God, I'm in. I'm in. So the thought was this older man recounting, like, these tapes his life and talking to a gerontologist who was trying to think, was this dementia? What was? You know, these stories, could they be real? So. So we could never Break it. And I was working with this great screenwriter, Eric Roth, who won the Oscar for Forrest Gump and Dune and Killers of the Flower Moon. I mean, as good as you can get. And. And Howie Miller and. And Sam Spreck. And we were working together and we couldn't bust it. And then came across a book that Howie gave me. Just take a read this. And it was called Life Before Life. It's a story about kids who present a past life experience, and it's a phenomenon. And it was just to read it. So one day in a meeting, we weren't getting anywhere. We couldn't bust the story about. And I said, well, wait a minute. What if he's not 100? What if he's 8? But he has these memories. He has these memories of an old person. Is that something? And we went. Got it. Then Eric said, why don't you meet Sarah Thorpe? She writes amazing stuff. Sarah came in two weeks after we told her the big bones of it and pitched out. This world of Dr. Eli Adler, dealing with this young Noah and where that would lead us. His late wife Lyn. How do they tie together? What. Where are we, you know? And who did this and who did. And it was incredible pitch. And I said, stop, I'll play him. I want to play him. And that's really how it started. And then once we got a commitment from apple to do 10, I was on Broadway with Mr. Saturday Night, so they were writing. So my only day off was Monday. So Sarah would send a script, say, what do you think? And I would read and go, oh, my God, I get to. What, are you kidding? So that was a discovery process that I did the. Oh, my God. How? She and the writing staff she put together wrote AN Amazing, amazing 10 episodes.

Billy Crystal (29:07)

Yeah, from before the beginning. Yeah. The most important moment for us was I was substitute teaching Right. In the same junior high that I had gone to in Long Beach. And I was really frustrated with myself. I was with two friends, was an improv group called Three's Company. That was the three of us. And I loved these guys. They were my best friends, and we were very funny together. But I was hiding. I needed to be on my own, and I didn't know how to do it, and I was really scared. And it was at the beginning of when the comedy clubs were becoming a thing, the improv here in New York that started it. And then there was a club on the east side called Catch a Rising Star, and we would go there as a group and work. And it was. Things just weren't happening. And then my manager who was managing the group at the end, the little tail part of us, said, the group's not going anywhere. Have you thought of being a single? Because we'll be there for you. And these are the managers who managed Robert Klein, Cavett, Woody Allen. Like they were the Jack Rollins, Charlie Joffe, Buddy Moore. They would like, they were like the class comedy managers. And I said, oh. He said, because we'll be there for you if you want to do it. Couple of days later I get a call from a friend at NYU saying, you know, a comedian can do like 20 minutes in front of a folk singer. Friday night at ZBT fraternity house on Mercer Street. I said, I'll do it. So when did you start doing it? And I lied. Oh, I've been doing it for a while. So I threw together some stuff I did, you know, pretty well that night. It went great. And now there's no turning back. In the interim, we have a baby. So now Janice comes to me and says, the baby's six months old and this is the turning point in my life. She says, I'm gonna go back to work. We really need the money. I get health benefits at my job. You'll watch Jenny all day. I'll come home around five and you go off and you'll be the comedian I know that you can be. And that was the deal. So two things happened. I'm now responsible for this six month old all on my own and with this amazing gift of time at night and go do it. And it's now, now you're on the clock. And I found with Jenny that you can love something so much more than yourself or anything else in your life. She can't get through today without you. And that was. And then Chance would come home, hand her off and then drive an hour into the city and try to get on before 1:00 clock in the morning. Drive all the way back. Janice would leave for her job and it was like 6, 7, 8 o' clock in the morning. I'd be up and then it would start all over again. But that was a turning point for me because I talked before about a guy losing his mind and finding himself. I was finding myself in spectacular ways that you can't really almost explain anyone unless they have their own kids and they have a, you know, a goal that they so want to achieve. And I don't know, I might have if that didn't happen, I don't know, would I have backed off and say, is there a full time teaching job that I can have? I don't know.

Billy Crystal (33:41)

Well, the first one was with. And it would turn out to be an amazing relationship. 1974. Ali beats George Foreman. The Rumble in the Jungle. They're going to honor him at the Plaza Hotel in a Tri State special. It was only going to be seen in New York, Pennsylvania and Connecticut. Sport magazine was a great magazine at the time. And its editor in chief was Dick Shap, who's a great writer and would later become one of our best friends. So he calls my agent because they're going to do this special for Ali. Is Robert Klein in town? Because Robert did a lot of great sports stuff. And she said, no, Robert's not in town. But I have this new kid and he does this imitation of Muhammad Ali and Cosell. It's really funny, Dick. It's like three minutes long. I've seen him at catcherizing store, you know, and I signed him and Dick said, great. It's a Plaza Hotel. Friday, 8 o' clock. Give me his number. I want to talk to him person. So I'm actually feeding Jenny. Billy, Dick Shapp. Hi. We're doing this thing because I'd like you to be on the show. Really? Yeah. And he's telling me all about it and he said, and I'll leave. I know he'll love as witness. Ali's going to be here. Oh, yeah. We're honoring him. And we'll see you Friday night, 8 o' clock. So I hung up the phone. I just. I couldn't believe that this was going to happen. Janice and I drive in from Long beach, the Plaza Hotel. We walk into the ballroom and cameras are all set up and all of these people are mingling around and we hold hands and we look like, as I described it, two people who had just gotten to America. We had. We were like, oh, my God. And then I saw Ali for the first time still. I mean, he was just. There was. Everyone else was like. It was like a Scorsese shot. Everybody else was in slow motion. Except him. It was amazing. And then Dick meets us and he says, janet, you're going to sit with me. Billy, you're like two seats from Ali on the dais. Yeah. And he goes, how should I introduce you? Because, no, I was not on anything. So I said, just say I'm one of Ali's closest and dearest friends. I said, good, good. All right, good. Because then I'll. In my mind, I'll go right to the mic. I'll just launch into the Howard Cosell of it. I won't have to talk as myself. My dry mouth will go away, and then that'll be fine. So I'm sitting next to Gino Marchetti from the Baltimore Colts, Archie Griffin. It was all the great individual sports stars. They're all on there, including Neil Simon and. Oh, my God, talk about an all star team, right? And George Plimpton.

Billy Crystal (40:15)

You talk about things. I'm. A new guy had come to la second or third time, and they set up a night for me at the Comedy store to do 20 minutes. And they invited a bunch of really heavyweight people to come if they wanted to see this new guy from, you know, from New York. So Carl Ryan was in the audience. Norman Lee was in the audience. Jim Brooks was in the audience. All of these people. It went really good. I'm standing outside. If you've been to Comedy Store, the scene is outside. Excuse me. And Mr. Reiner walks out, introduces himself, like he had to. You know, I'm Carl Reiner. Yes. And, like, what was the name? Do I know you from? And then Norman Lear comes out. Same thing. Hi, I'm Norman Learning. So nice to meet you. Really enjoyed it. Tell me about yourself. So and so forth. Two weeks later, I'm again feeding Jenny. She's like, it was such a good omen for me. Good luck. Good luck charm. Hello. Hold on for Norman Lear. Mr. Crystal. So did I. What did I. Did I. Offended? What was it? Billy. Hey, Norman Lear. We met at the Comedy Store, and I want to go. I don't I don't recall. You know, what are you so self effaced? There's a part on all in the Family that's coming up next week and I think you and Robbie would be really good together. The script's not there yet, but it'll get there. That's how we work. And so can you get here? Yeah, of course. Great. We'll make all the arrangements and I'll see you when you get here. And I won an all in family and played Rob's best friend. And we became best friends after that. We sort of said, this worked good. Should we keep it going? And that relationship, he's like a brother to me. And I was fortunate enough to be in three amazing movies. One line in Spinal Tap, a bunch of lines in the Princess Bride, and most of the lines in there. A lot of. And you know, that body of work of just with Rob and I alone means so much to my career and so much to me personally that, you know, you know, we're in our 70s now and that we have this great friendship still. And the body of work is a big reason why, you know, nice things have happened for me.