Not sure we believe it, but apparently no one wanted to play Noah Calhoun, aka the man of all our dreams, in The Notebook. Cue Ryan Gosling becoming a household name /the subject of women’s fantasies everywhere, always, forever.
In an interview with IMDb Asks, Nicholas Sparks let us in on the reason behind Ryan’s casting…
“The funny thing was, no one wanted to play Noah. It was incredibly hard to find an actor willing to play Noah. It was really interesting because a lot of the actors said, ‘Well, what’s Noah’s arc?’ It’s a guy who falls in love and then he just kinda does nothing, and then waits for her to show up and then he’s there and he’s still in love and then at the end of the film, well, he’s still in love,’ they said. ‘Where’s the arc?’ So Ryan Gosling came in and he really brought that story to life.”
It’s hard to imagine The Notebook without Ryan Gosling, and luckily, thanks to everyone else being dill’s who didn’t want the best role ever, we never have to.
Let’s also take a moment to bask in the gloriousness that is Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams, even in the early audition days.
This article originally appeared on InStyle.
