If you’re a pop star, I’m a pop star.
Britney Spears’ never-before-seen audition for the 2004 tearjerker The Notebook was released before her memoir hit bookshelves. The Chron obtained the then-21-year-old pop star’s reading for the role of Allie Hamilton from casting director Matthew Barry, who revealed that Spears sidelined other candidates, including Claire Danes, Scarlett Johansson and Jessica Biel, as frontrunners for the role, before it went to Rachel McAdams.
Filmed in 2002, the nearly three-minute clip features a rare turn of events from the star as she informs Ryan Gosling, who is reading his lines off-camera as his character Noah Calhoun, that she is marrying another man.
Barry said producers were blown away by Spears’ audition. “It was a difficult decision,” he said. “Our jaws were on the floor. I was blown away. Absolutely blown away. She did her best that day.”
Set in 1940s South Carolina, “The Notebook” centers on the love story between mill worker Noah (Gosling) and rich girl Allie (McAdams), who are torn apart by disapproving parents and World War II. Spears’ audition came after her role in the 2002 road trip dramedy “Crossroads,” which is scheduled to return to theaters this week for a limited run, coinciding with the Oct. 24 release of her memoir “The Woman in Me.” .
Britney Spears; Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams in The Notebook. Phillip Faraone/FilmMagic; Everett Collection
In her new book, Spears said she was “glad” she didn’t get the role of Allie, citing her problems with Method on the set of “Crossroads.” “The experience was not easy for me,” she wrote in an excerpt published by PEOPLE. “My problem wasn’t with anyone involved in the production, but with how acting affected me. I think I started with method acting – I just didn’t know how to break out of my role. I really became this different person.”
“While it would have been fun to reconnect with Ryan Gosling after our time on The Mickey Mouse Club,” Spears added on The Notebook, “I’m glad I didn’t. If I had done it instead of working on my In the Zone album, I would have behaved like a 1940s heiress day and night… I hope I never come near that occupational hazard again.
Want more movie news? Sign up for Entertainment Weekly’s free newsletter to get the latest trailers, celebrity interviews, movie reviews and more.
Related content: