For the past year, we’ve all been talking about Ryan Gosling thanks to his iconic performance as Ken in Greta Gerwig’s Barbie movie – but our infatuation actually started way back in 2004 when he starred as Noah in The Notebook.
Back then, Ryan’s character was boyfriend goals. Noah built Allie her dream house, he loved her for literally his entire life and his kisses were so mesmerising to audiences that Ryan and his co-star Rachel McAdams re-enacted one on stage after winning “Best Kiss” at the MTV Movie Awards.
With all of this swooning in mind, the reason behind Ryan landing the role of Noah is all the more baffling.
Back in 2012, Ryan told Company magazine that, actually, not being handsome is what landed him the role.
What?!
He explained: ”[Director Nick Cassavettes] called me to meet him at his house, when I got there, he was standing in his backyard, and he looked at me and said, ‘I want you to play this role because you’re not like the other young actors out there in Hollywood. You’re not handsome, you’re not cool, you’re just a regular guy who looks a bit nuts’.”
Oh.
In a later interview with VH1, Cassavettes elaborated further, saying: “When I told [New Line Cinema] I wanted to hire Ryan for the lead, they kind of looked at me like I was out of my mind.”
As if all of that wasn’t wild enough, it turns out that Ryan also tried to get co-star Rachel kicked off the set.
According to Vanity Fair, in that same VH1 interview, Cassavettes revealed: “They were really not getting along one day on set. Really not. And Ryan came to me, and there’s 150 people standing in this big scene, and he says, ‘Nick come here.’ And he’s doing a scene with Rachel and he says, ‘Would you take her out of here and bring in another actress to read off camera with me?’.
“I said, ‘What?’ He says, ‘I can’t. I can’t do it with her. I’m just not getting anything from this’.”
In an even bigger twist, despite their shaky start, Ryan and Rachel actually dated for around two years, before eventually going their separate ways in 2008.
What a whirlwind!