The Notebook could’ve been a much different film if Britney Spears starred in the film opposite Ryan Gosling. Spears’ audition tape for the leading role of Allie has been shared online and the casting director for the movie says she beat out many of the top young actresses of the time.
“Britney beat out several of the top female actresses at the time. Scarlett Johansson, Claire Danes, Kate Bosworth, Amy Adams, Jamie King and Mandy Moore auditioned for this role. Britney beat out all of them. Everybody who was anybody that year wanted this part,” casting director Matthew Berry told the Daily Mail.
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Barry said that the singer “wasn’t just good — she was phenomenal” in the role. In the audition tape, Spears reads the lines for Allie during a pivotal scene where the fictional character reveals she has plans to marry another man. Spears slowly starts tearing up as she goes on with her lines proving her emotional range and acting abilities.
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The role ultimately went to newcomer Rachel McAdams, which Spears was ultimately thankful for because she wasn’t thrilled about the costumes she would have to be wearing.
“The Notebook casting came down to me and Rachel McAdams, and even though it would have been fun to reconnect with Ryan Gosling after our time on The Mickey Mouse Club, I’m glad I didn’t do it,” Spears recalled in her memoir The Woman in Me.” “If I had, instead of working on my album In the Zone, I’d have been acting like a 1940s heiress day and night.”
Spears would ultimately abandon pursuing acting as she didn’t have a pleasant time following her experience filming Crossroads. In her memoir, Spears talks about struggling with Method acting as she struggled “to break out of my character” when she wasn’t filming.”
“I really became this other person. Some people do Method acting, but they’re usually aware of the fact that they’re doing it. But I didn’t have any separation at all,” Spears says.
“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.”
See Spears’ audition tape for The Notebook in the video posted below.