Among many revelations in Britney Spears’ upcoming memoir, The Woman in Me, was that she made it to the final round of auditions to play Allie opposite Ryan Gosling’s Noah in The Notebook.
Rachel McAdams ultimately got the part, but the film’s casting director, Matthew Barry, is giving fans a look at what Britney would have been like in the role. He exclusively shared Britney’s casting tape, which was recorded in Los Angeles on August 18, 2002, with The Daily Mail.
In the tape, Britney stands across from an offscreen Ryan as they act out the scene where Allie tells Noah she is going to marry a different man. As Britney performs, her eyes well up with tears.
Matthew said that he thought Britney’s performance wasn’t just good, it was phenomenal.
“It was a tough decision,” Barry said. “Britney blew us all away. Our jaws were on the floor. I was blown away. Absolutely blown away. She brought her A-game that day.”
Matthew was so impressed with Britney that she beat out several big-name actresses at the time.
“Scarlett Johansson, Claire Danes, Kate Bosworth, Amy Adams, Jaime King and Mandy Moore auditioned for this role. Britney beat out all of them. Everybody who was anybody that year wanted this part,” Matthew said.
As for how Britney feels about missing out on the part? She writes in her memoir, “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.”
“If I had, instead of working on my album In the Zone I’d have been acting like a 1940s heiress day and night,” Britney wrote.
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