Yahoo News George Clooney nearly starred in The Notebook instead of Ryan Gosling
Can you imagine The Notebook without Ryan Gosling? Apparently, the fan-favourite romantic movie could have looked very different; George Clooney has revealed that he nearly starred as the male lead opposite Rachel McAdams, instead of Gosling.
The 2004 film tells the story of two young lovers, Noah and Allie, in the 1940s, told via flashbacks by their older characters, played by James Garner and Gena Rowlands. The movie is known for pulling at the heartstrings of even the most composed viewers.
Clooney revealed at the London Film Festival this weekend that he was originally approached for the male lead, with cinema legend Paul Newman set to play him as an elderly man.
“We were going to do The Notebook together,” Clooney explained of Newman, who sadly died in 2008. “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’s one of the handsomest guys you’ve ever seen,” he continued, according to the Independent. “We met up [again] and I said, ‘I can’t play you. I don’t look anything like you. This is insane.’ 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.”
The film went on to be a huge hit with fans
Clooney stars alongside Felicity Jones, Kyle Chandler and David Oyelowo in his next film, The Midnight Sky, out in December.
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