Top 10 Things You Didn't Know About The Notebook

If you’ve seen Rachel McAdams’s audition tape for her role as Allie in “The Notebook”, you’ll see right away why she was chosen for the part. Her grasp of the character is immediately clear, and in fact her performance barely changes in the final version of the scene. It turns out she only had a few hours to prepare for her audition, but that she was incredibly moved by the script. McAdams said that she “sobbed uncontrollably” when she read the story, which must be why her test performance was so evocative.

One of the things that makes “The Notebook” such an incredible movie is the chemistry between its two stars, Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams. So it may come as a surprise that the two actually had conflict on set and at one point Gosling reportedly asked if McAdams could leave so he could read with another actress. What makes this even harder to believe is that the two went on to date after the movie was released - for several years! Maybe their relationship was just like Noah and Allie’s and their fights were part of their passion!

Ryan Gosling took his role very seriously, and did everything he could to get into character. He even learned carpentry and built the table that is used in his house in the movie where he and Allie sit together. Speaking of the house though, Gosling thought that Noah should burn it down at one point in the narrative after his character put so much work into restoring it. While this definitely would have made for a dramatic moment, we’re happy that director Nick Cassavetes wasn’t into the idea.

Something viewers of the film may not realize is that the novel “The Notebook” is told from Noah’s perspective. That means that readers don’t have much access to Allie’s inner thoughts or her life outside of Noah. The filmmakers decided to switch this up and give Allie an equal amount of air time, and show viewers what she was experiencing. In fact, during their time apart it often seems like we have a better idea of what Allie is doing rather than Noah, who remains more mysterious throughout the narrative.

In one of the most memorable scenes from the film, Noah and Allie take a serene boat ride that ends in a dramatic confrontation after a storm rolls in. One of the things that makes the visuals so striking and surreal are the seemingly thousands of birds that surround them on the water. While the director had a strong vision for this scene, the studio didn’t think it was practically feasible because the birds couldn’t be trained to stay there. Nick Cassavetes was staunch in his idea though and decided to raise hatchlings on the banks of the lake and fed them there so that they would be accustomed to the setting.

Though much of the content of the film was taken from the source material found in Nicholas Sparks’ book, one of the most memorable bits of dialogue from the movie was actually improvised by Ryan Gosling - and it wasn’t even in the script. After he and Allie spend the night together, Noah interrogates Allie about what she plans to do about the fact that she’s engaged to someone else. He begs her to tell him what she really wants, and while the passionate delivery makes it seem like it must have been well thought out, the actor came up with it on the spot.

After seeing Rachel McAdams’s audition, it’s hard to imagine the role of Allie being given to anyone else. But several other high profile performers were considered for the role. Firstly, there were talks of having Britney Spears and Justin Timeberlake acts as the leads, which is honestly something we can’t even imagine. Jessica Biel tried out for Allie while filming “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and was covered in blood for her audition. There were also other directors supposedly considered to lead the production like Steven Spielberg, Jim Sheridan and Martin Campbell.

Noah and Allie’s love story is told in three parts. There’s the section when they first meet in their youth, when they come back together after years apart and when they’re in their old age. The first two parts were actually filmed in reverse, so if the characters seem ill at ease together, that’s because the actors weren’t familiar with each other yet. The reason they’re able to seem so close in the earlier scenes is because they had been working together for a long time. Gosling reportedly had to lose 20 pounds when it came time to play young Noah!

Today, Ryan Gosling is considered to be one of the biggest Hollywood heartthrobs, but when he was cast in this 2004 movie, he was still relatively unknown. And in fact, the director Nick Cassavetes allegedly said that he wanted Gosling for the role because he wasn’t “cool” or “handsome” like the other big industry stars. Instead, Cassavetes said that he seemed just crazy enough for the part. Also you may not have noticed, but one of Gosling’s most distinctive features is actually hidden in the film- we never see his blue eyes because he wears brown contacts throughout in order to match with older actor James Garner.

Despite its popularity, many fans of “The Notebook” don’t know that the film was loosely based on real people. Not only that, but those people were Nicholas Sparks’ family members! Sparks’ now ex wife, Cathy, was close to her grandparents, and it was their decades-long love story that gave him the idea for his first published novel. Sparks said that it was the kindness and care that the couple showed for each other even after sixty years of marriage that gave him the idea for Noah and Allie’s story. How adorable is that?