Britney Spears has revealed that she was nearly cast opposite Ryan Gosling in The Notebook instead of Rachel McAdams.
The chart-topping singer makes the revelation in her new tell-all memoir The Woman in Me, which is out 24 October.
Her book – excerpts of which have now been published – charts her life and career as a pop music sensation, along with her 13 years spent in a conservatorship that oversaw numerous aspects of her professional and private life.
“It is finally time for me to raise my voice and speak out, and my fans deserve to hear it directly from me,” she told People in an exclusive interview. “No more conspiracy, no more lies – just me owning my past, present and future.”
In an extract of The Woman In Me, Britney speaks about her brief experience as an actor, during which she revealed that that 2004 romance film The Notebook could have looked very different.
“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,” Britney shared.
“If I had, instead of working on my album In the Zone I’d have been acting like a 1940s heiress day and night.”
Speaking about her big screen debut in the 2002 coming-of-age road trip drama Crossroads, Britney said it was not an “easy” experience for her.
The Grammy winner recalled: “My problem wasn’t with anyone involved in the production but with what acting did to my mind.”
She elaborated: “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.
“I ended up walking differently, carrying myself differently, talking differently. I was someone else for months while I filmed Crossroads. Still to this day, I bet the girls I shot that movie with think, ‘She’s a little…quirky’. If they thought that, they were right.”
The Toxic singer said Crossroads was “pretty much the beginning and end of my acting career”, adding that she was “relieved” when it came to an end.
Britney said that she hoped to “never get close to that occupational hazard again” of being half a fictional character. “After a while you don’t know what’s real anymore,” she shared.
Elsewhere in her memoir, the singer opens up about the height of her personal struggles, describing how shaving her head and acting out were “my ways of pushing back”
Since the dissolution of the conservatorship, Britney has repeatedly spoken out against those involved in the arrangement.
More recently, she’s also returned to the music world, releasing the Elton John collaboration Hold Me Closer in 2022, and the Will.i.am-produced Mind Your Business earlier this year.
In her personal life, Britney also married her long-time partner Sam Asghari in June 2022, though the pair confirmed just over a year later that they were planning to divorce.
The Woman In Me is released on Tuesday 24 October.