In the video shared by Hollywood casting director Matthew Barry more than two decades after her audition, the 'Everytime' singer gets teary-eyed as she reads emotional lines from the 2004 movie.
- Oct 24, 2023
AceShowbiz - Video of Britney Spears' tearful audition for "The Notebook" has been unearthed. After she revealed in her memoir "The Woman in Me" that she made it to the final rounds of auditions to play Allie in the 2004 romantic movie, full footage of how she impressed everyone during her screen test with Ryan Gosling has surfaced online.
In the video, the pop star got teary-eyed as she read Allie's emotional lines. "I'm not staying," she said in character as Allie tells Ryan's Noah she's going to marry another man. "I tried to call you to tell you that I wasn't going to stay - but nobody answered the phone... Noah, you can't marry two people. And I'm marrying Lon, so I should go, okay?"
"I prayed for you to die in the war, really," Britney continued as her eyes welled up with tears. "Well, not die. I would have felt completely horrible if you would die. But I kinda didn't want you to be alive anymore because I couldn't bear the thought of you being with somebody else, or of us never seeing each other again. So I gotta go, okay?"
The video was shared by casting director Matthew Barry to Daily Mail. According to Matthew, "Britney wasn't just good" in her session with Ryan, "she was phenomenal."
Britney beat out a slew of other hopefuls, including Claire Danes, Scarlett Johansson, Amy Adams and Jessica Biel, but the role eventually went to Rachel McAdams. "It was a tough decision," Matthew admitted. "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."
He went on recalling, "Britney beat out several of the top female 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."
Britney, in her part, never regretted losing out the role. In her autobiography, she wrote, "Even though it would have been fun to reconnect with Ryan Gosling after out time on the 'Mickey Mouse Club', I'm glad I didn't do it. I imagine there are people in the acting field who have dealt with something like that, where they had trouble separating themselves from a character."
"I hope I never get close to that occupational hazard again," she added. "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."
Britney made her acting debut in 2002's movie "Crossroads", which further showed the challenges she dealt with acting. "My problem wasn't with anyone involved in the production but with what acting did to my mind," she shared. "I think I started Method acting - only I didn't know how to break out of my character. I really became this other person."
The 41-year-old explained, "Some people do Method acting, but they're usually aware of the fact that they're doing it. But I didn't have any separation at all. I ended up walking differently, carrying myself differently, talking differently. I was someone else for months while I filmed 'Crossroads'. Still to this day, I bet the girls I shot that movie with think, 'She's a little… quirky.' If they thought that, they were right."
