It’s hard to imagine anyone other than Rachel McAdams as the Allie to Ryan Gosling’s Noah in “The Notebook,” but can you believe Britney Spears nearly snagged the role?
In an Oct. 24 interview with Entertainment Tonight, “The Notebook”‘s casting director, Matthew Barry, revealed all about the pop icon’s audition for the role. “Britney Spears was unbelievable. She was absolutely unbelievable. Britney came in and blew us all away,” Barry shared. “I’m glad her fans have now gotten a chance to finally see it. And I just honestly, I think she should really go back to it,” he added of Britney’s audition tape, which was obtained and published by The Daily Mail on Oct. 23.
“Ryan and Britney were very professional,” added Barry. “If you’ve ever met [“The Notebook”‘s director] Nick Cassavetes, he can be very intimidating at 6’5″. Ryan was really cool, he allowed Britney the time to meet with Nick to discuss the role, to discuss the character. And I think once it was all over, then it was, like, reunion time.” (Spears and Gosling have known each other since they were children, having starred together on Disney’s “The All New Mickey Mouse Club” from 1993 to 1994.) He continued, “I think she definitely tapped into her emotional depth and brought it out. She showed us she was raw, she was emotional, she was fantastic. She laid it all out on the line.”
While Spears was this close to landing the role, McAdams came out on top. “Rachel blew us away. Britney came in, and then Rachel came in, I think, shortly afterwards, and just destroyed us,” Barry recounted. “It was a very, very hard toss-up between the two of them. There was lots of arguing as there are in any film that ever gets made. I think the studio probably wanted Britney for obvious reasons. But Rachel, it was her role.”
Spears wasn’t too torn up about the studio’s decision, revealing in her memoir, “The Woman in Me,” that she was glad she prioritized her music over acting. “If I had [landed that role], instead of working on my album ‘In the Zone,’ I’d have been acting like a 1940s heiress day and night,” she wrote. “I hope I never get close to that occupational hazard again. Living that way, being half yourself and half a fictional character is messed up. After a while, you don’t know what’s real anymore.”