Why did Tom Hanks turn down lead role in ‘When Harry Met Sally’?

If fate had it, the 1989 classic "When Harry Met Sally" would have starred Tom Hanks instead of Billy Crystal. In a recent interaction on "Table for Two with Bruce Bozzi" podcast, Hanks' wife, Rita Wilson revealed that the Hollywood superstar was offered the movie but he turned it down.

Wilson also shared the reason due to which Hanks didn't do the movie. Had Hanks done the movie, his character Harry would have gone through a divorce and then eventually got married to the lead actress' character Sally. But Hanks didn't like the idea as in real life, he was going through a divorce at that time and was very happy.

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"People probably don’t know this, but Tom was offered ‘When Harry Met Sally,’ and he turned it down because he was going through a divorce, and he was very happy to be not married," revealed Wilson.

"And so, he could not understand that a person going through a divorce would have anything other than just like, ‘I’m so happy,’" she added.

Hanks was married to Samantha Lewes, from 1978 to 1987. They had two children together, actor Colin Hanks and daughter Elizabeth Hanks. After divorcing Lewes, Hanks got married to Wilson in 1988. With Wilson, he had two sons together, Chet and Truman.

Notably, actress Meg Ryan played the role of Sally Albright in the movie. Ryan and Hanks went on to star together in films like "Sleepless in Seattle", "You’ve Got Mail" and “Joe Versus the Volcano”.

Actors like Albert Brooks, Richard Dreyfuss and Michael Keaton, were also considered for playing the role of Harry in the movie by director Rob Reiner .