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George Clooney says he almost played Ryan Gosling's role in 'The Notebook'

Oct 19, 2020, 17:51 IST
Insider
George Clooney.Alessandro Bianchi/Reuters
  • George Clooney could have been young Noah in "The Notebook."
  • The actor revealed to Entertainment Weekly that at one time he was considering the role with Paul Newman starring as older Noah.
  • Clooney finally told Newman he couldn't play the role. "You're too famous at 30 for me to be playing you at 30," he told Newman.
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File this in the what-could-have-been pile.

There was a time in Hollywood when George Clooney was circling the big-screen adaptation of the Nicholas Sparks book, "The Notebook."

"I was going to do it with Paul Newman," Clooney revealed recently to Samantha Highfill at Entertainment Weekly while talking about his upcoming Netflix movie, "The Midnight Sky." "I was playing the flashback and Paul Newman was the old guy."

Clooney as Noah Calhoun and Newman as the older version of the character would have been quite a one-two punch. So why did it not happen?

Paul Newman.courtesy Douglas Kirkland/ Corbis Via Getty Images

"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,'" Clooney recalled. "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.'"

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Clooney's instinct was correct. One of the many things that works about the version that got made starring Ryan Gosling as young Noah and James Garner (no slouch in the legend category compared to Newman) as old Noah is that once you realize they are playing the same character at different times in his life it doesn't take you out of the movie that Gosling doesn't look anything like a young Garner.

Ryan Gosling eventually played Noah in "The Notebook."New Line Cinema

A Clooney/Newman version would have led to much more attention to the movie and more scrutiny of the pairing, as both were much more famous. Using the then lesser-known Gosling led to a star-making role, as the release of "The Notebook" in 2004 flew under the radar theatrically then became the classic we know now once it went to home video and cable.

Clooney didn't reveal to EW the actresses attached back when he and Newman considered it, but it would be fascinating to know who would have played Allie, which eventually went to Rachel McAdams and Gena Rowlands.

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