Now, we know what you’re thinking. There’s quite an age gap between George Clooney and Ryan Gosling, so no wonder the creatives behind “The Notebook” went in a different direction by casting a younger star opposite Rachel McAdams in a film that, for many, is like cutting onions for 121 minutes. The truth is, however, the script for “The Notebook” had been doing the rounds in Hollywood for years before it made stars out of its leads. In fact, initially, Clooney (an Oscar-nominated actor and Oscar-winning producer) was cast in Gosling’s role as Noah Calhoun, the guy from the other side of the tracks that catches the eye of Allie Hamilton (the part that eventually went to McAdams). On that iteration, though, Clooney became far too wary of the shoes he would be partially filling when he found out who was being considered to play the older version of Noah: the big screen legend Paul Newman.
In a 2020 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Clooney revealed that he was once in line to star in what would come to be regarded as one of the greatest romantic movies of all time. “I was going to do a movie years ago called ‘The Notebook,’ that Ryan Gosling actually did, and I was going to do it with Paul Newman,” Clooney explained. “I was playing the flashback and Paul Newman was the old guy.” However, after much deliberation, Clooney couldn’t skim over one major issue that was looking him right in the eye. It was the fact that Paul Newman was just too big a deal and a blue-eyed big deal at that.
George Clooney put down The Notebook before Ryan Gosling picked it up
After having a conversation with his potential co-star, Clooney concluded that if he couldn’t get over the limited likeness between himself and Newman, the audience wasn’t likely to either. “Paul and I talked about doing it, and we were sitting there one day and I was looking at him and I go, ‘I can’t do this movie, Paul,'” recalled Clooney. “He was like. ‘Why?’ I was like, ‘Because everybody knows what you look like at 30 years old. You got blue eyes, I got brown eyes. You’re too famous at 30 for me to be playing you at 30, it’s never gonna work.’ And he’s like, ‘I guess you’re right.'”
From there, the decision was made. “We bailed out and I think 10 years later they made it,” said Clooney, leaving Gosling and his older on-screen iteration, James Garner, to take over instead and lead “The Notebook” to become a hit in the process.
It’s nothing new for stars to sit, stew, and ultimately split from a project if it doesn’t sit right with them. Some even get fired during filming because things just don’t click, and this could’ve easily been a similar case. Let’s just be glad that Clooney turned it down and left what became a career-defining role for his replacement. Who knows? Without it, we might’ve missed out on Gosling memes, Kenergy, and a Gosling-led “Star Wars” movie as well.