The Notebook could have had offered a different movie experience as it was supposed to have a diverse cast.
Years after The Notebook conquered the big screens, George Clooney revealed shocking details about the film’s cast.
Clooney recently appeared in an interview with Deadline (via Vulture), where he revealed vital details about the Nicholas Sparks-written film.
“The Notebook” secret
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Per the Oscar winner, he almost joined the team by playing the role of young Noah Calhoun. If it happened, he would have played the younger version of Paul Newman’s character.
“We were going to do ‘The Notebook’ together… Basically, I was going to play him as a young man, and it was funny. We met and said, ‘This is it. It’s going to be great,'” he recalled.
However, when he realized that he looked nothing like his supposed co-star, he quit the role and backed out.
Clooney went on to describe Newman as one of the most handsome guys a person can ever see.
He noted that when they met up again, he told him that he could not play him since he does not look like him.
“We just wanted to do it because we wanted to work together, [but] it ended up being not the right thing for us to do.”
Unfortunately, their plans to work together did not happen ever as Newman died in 2008. The actor was 83 years old when he lost his long battle with cancer.
The Notebook ended up casting Ryan Gosling and James Garner as the younger and older versions of Noah.
Meanwhile, Rachel McAdams and Gena Rowlands became the Allie Hamilton in the 2004 film.
Finding the best Noah was the hardest
Meanwhile, Nicholas Sparks, the author of the book on which they based the movie, revealed the hardest part about creating the film.
Per Sparks, they saw finding the best fit for Noah as the hardest part in building the movie.
According to the author, no one wanted to play the role. Thus, they faced a hard time looking for an actor who could be Noah.
“It was really interesting because a lot of the actors said, ‘Well, what’s Noah’s arc?’ It’s a guy who falls in love and then he just kinda does nothing, and then waits for her to show up and then he’s there and he’s still in love and then at the end of the film, well, he’s still in love,’ they said,” he recalled.
Fortunately, Gosling came forward and breathed life into the character.
Featured Image courtesy of Nicolas Genin, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons