The Big Picture

George Clooney and Paul Newman almost starred together in The Notebook, with Clooney playing the young Noah. However, Clooney got cold feet and realized he didn’t resemble Newman enough to pull off the role. Britney Spears auditioned for the role of Allie in The Notebook but lost out to Rachel McAdams. Despite not landing the role, Spears considers it the best script she’s ever read. While Clooney and Newman didn’t get to star in The Notebook together, Clooney later honored Newman by being the voice of Newman in a docuseries about his life.

The Notebook remains one of the greatest love stories to date, even almost twenty years after its initial release. The film follows two timelines, one of a young Allie (Rachel McAdams) and Noah (Ryan Gosling) as their relationship blossoms, falls apart, and comes back together. This story is framed by that of older Allie (Gena Rowlands) and Noah (James Garner) now living in a nursing home, where Allie suffers from dementia and Noah reads her the story of their relationship. The iconic tearjerker by Nicholas Sparks remains a staple in the romance genre and was so perfectly cast it can be hard to imagine anyone else in the roles. After all, who else could capture the steamy passion of that rain kiss better than Gosling and McAdams? It just doesn’t feel like it would work any other way. But as it turns out, the film almost looked completely different, with some actors you may not expect having been lined up to portray the characters — George Clooney, Paul Newman, and Britney Spears.

Who Did George Clooney Almost Play in ‘The Notebook’?
Image via NBC

In an interview with Deadline, George Clooney shared that he almost took on the role of Noah in The Notebook — but he wasn’t going to do it alone. Clooney was friends with veteran actor Paul Newman, whose nearly 60-year career includes credits such as Cool Hand Luke, The Hustler, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. According to Clooney, he and Newman wanted to work together, and so they talked of starting in The Notebook. “We were going to do The Notebook together,” George Clooney shared. “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.’”

But upon going home and watching many of Newman’s films, Clooney got cold feet. “He’s one of the handsomest guys you’ve ever seen. 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.”

While The Notebook may not have been the right project for the pair to do, George Clooney did get to honor the late Paul Newman in 2022. Ethan Hawke’s docuseries The Last Movie Stars tells the lives, careers, and love story of Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. Hawke approached Clooney to be the voice of Newman in the documentary, which pulled plenty of interview transcripts from Newman’s time in Hollywood. So while we may not have gotten to see them play Noah Calhoun together, Clooney still got to honor Newman in a beautiful way.

RELATED: Ryan Gosling’s Most Romantic Role Isn’t ‘The Notebook’ or ‘La La Land’

Who Did Britney Spears Almost Play in ‘The Notebook’?
Image via Paramount Pictures

If the thought of Paul Newman and George Clooney being in The Notebook through you for a loop, then you’ll be even more surprised to know that Britney Spears almost landed the role of Allie. Casting director Matthew Barry shared with Daily Mail some of the auditions he’s seen throughout his career. Among these include Britney Spears auditioning for the role of Allie in The Notebook. At the time, Spears was at the height of her career, and auditioned for the role, and had a screen test with the film’s leading man Ryan Gosling. According to Matthew Barry, it was a close call between Britney Spears and Rachel McAdams, but the role ultimately went to McAdams after she “aced her audition.” Still, Spears speaks highly of the film and has said that The Notebook is the best script she’s ever read.

Despite not booking the roles, neither Spears, Clooney, nor Newman were deterred, and they all went on to have continuously successful careers. Still, though, it is interesting to imagine what a Spears, Clooney, and Newman-led version of The Notebook would look like. Though, the film was of course cast perfectly and we certainly wouldn’t change a thing about it, it’s fun to wonder “What if?” And this is certainly a version of The Notebook we’d like to see, if only out of curiosity.