Can the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences retrospectively issue someone an Oscar Award for a performance in an audition? If so, we believe that Britney Spears is due the accolade after the never-before-seen tape of her audition for Rachel McAdams’ role of Allie in The Notebook has been released. (To critical acclaim, may we add).
Though fans of the film adaptation of Nicholas Sparks’ best-selling novel may be aware that Spears was considered for the role in the 2004 romance-drama—a part that eventually went to McAdams and saw her and her on-screen counterpart, Ryan Gosling, become one of Hollywood’s biggest power couples in the early 2000s—the pop star has shed new details about the process in her upcoming unreleased memoir The Woman In Me.
In the book, Spears writes that she was the final competition for McAdams, explaining: “The Notebook casting came down to me and Rachel McAdams”. “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,” she continued. “If I had, instead of working on my album In the Zone I’d have been acting like a 1940s heiress day and night.”
The multi-hyphenated performer—whose acting credits include her tenure on the aforementioned children’s program and her breakout role in the 2001 bildungsroman film Crossroads—noted that the role would’ve been in her disinterest as she would’ve struggled to separate her real self from the character.
“I hope I never get close to that occupational hazard again. Living that way, being half yourself and half a fictional character, is messed up. After a while you don’t know what’s real anymore,” she noted.
Though the eventual casting choice resulted in the beloved romance drama, it did rob us of a film where Gosling and Spears teamed up again. Though that version of the cinematic masterpiece may exist out there in another universe, thankfully we have remnants of what could’ve been with Spears’ unreleased audition tape coming to light.
In the line reading, Spears can be seen delivering an emotional rendition of Allie’s tear-jerking monologue as she reunites with Noah after returning to Seabrook to see him have built their dream house. (The lines before Gosling’s iconic: “I wrote you 365 letters! I wrote you every day for a year!) Gosling’s voice can be heard off-screen, but it’s Spears’ delivery that will really move you.
Prepare to go back to the high school days of rewatching The Notebook till tears stream down your face and watch her audition tape below.
Watch Britney Spears audition for The Notebook.
BRITNEY SPEARS' AUDITION FOR THE NOTEBOOK pic.twitter.com/328RutMSfH
— ً (@archiveney) October 23, 2023
The Woman In Me by Britney Spears is available to pre-order now. Click below to order a copy of the memoir.
THE WOMAN IN ME BY BRITNEY SPEARS. PRE-ORDER NOW
