Nora Ephron: Unstoppable Wit

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Academy of Achievement

Film, Politics, Arts, Self-help, Sports, Society & Culture, Success, Literature, Humanitarian, Military, Social Justice, Technology, Podcast, Achievement, Music, Science

4.6 • 943 Ratings

🗓️ 24 April 2017

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Nora Ephron knew just how to make people laugh and cry and kvell. But mostly laugh. She wrote some of the greatest romantic comedies of all time, including "When Harry Met Sally" and "Sleepless in Seattle". She was a successful director and producer too, in an industry not very hospitable to women. In this episode, Ephron shares the most important lesson she learned from her mother: that all pain is fodder for a good story. She explains why becoming a journalist was the best thing she ever did. And she tells stories from her later career in Hollywood, including the one about how the famous faked-orgasm scene in "When Harry Met Sally" came about. (c ) American Academy of Achievement 2017

Transcript

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0:00.0	I love that it you get cold when it's 71 degrees out. I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich.
0:06.0	I love that you get a little crinkle above your nose when you're looking at me like I'm nuts.
0:10.0	I would never play you a movie clip that revealed the very end of a movie.
0:14.8	That would be obnoxious, normally.
0:17.5	But if it's when Harry met Sally, you've absolutely definitely already seen it.
0:22.1	So no need for a spoiler alert. If you haven't seen it well
0:26.0	shame on you anyway. Put down this podcast go rent the movie and then come back
0:30.6	to listen.
0:31.6	That is just like you, Harry.
0:34.4	You say things like that, and you make it impossible for me to hate you.
0:38.8	And I hate you, Harry.
0:41.6	I really hate you.
0:45.0	When Harry Met Sally is one of the best romantic comedies of all time,
0:51.0	written by one of the best and funniest writers of all time, written by one of the best and funniest writers of all time,
0:55.0	Nora Efren. She started out as a journalist but went on to write essays, novels,
1:01.0	plays, movies, basically anything that allowed her to put pen to paper.
1:06.3	Her parents were both Hollywood screenwriters, so she was born to it.
1:10.8	Her mother's constant refrain was everything is copy.
1:15.0	If you came to her with the tragedy, she would, and God knows children have a lot of tragedies.
1:22.0	She really wasn't interested in it at all.
1:26.1	You know, she wasn't one of those mothers who went,
1:28.0	oh, honey, tell me what happened to you at school?
	...

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