George Clooney says he almost starred in The Notebook, but ultimately turned down the role. The role was eventually given to Ryan Gosling.
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“I was going to do a movie years ago called The Notebook, that Ryan Gosling actually did, and I was going to do it with Paul Newman. I was playing the flashback and Paul Newman was the old guy,” Clooney told EW while promoting his upcoming film The Midnight Sky.
Both Clooney and Newman ended up turning down their respective roles. While Gosling took over Clooney’s role, James Garner was cast in the role that would have gone to Newman.
“Paul and I talked about doing it, and we were sitting there one day and I was looking at him and I go, ‘I can’t do this movie, Paul,'” Clooney remembered. “He was like. ‘Why?’ I was like, ‘Because everybody knows what you look like at 30 years old. You got blue eyes, I got brown eyes. You’re too famous at 30 for me to be playing you at 30, it’s never gonna work.’ And he’s like, ‘I guess you’re right.’
“We bailed out and I think 10 years later they made it.”
The Midnight Sky is scheduled to be released on Netflix in December 2020.
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