Rachel McAdams Talks Ryan Gosling Rift On ‘The Notebook’


While The Notebook includes one of the greatest romances in modern cinema, its production was far from lovey-dovey. In fact there have long been rumors that its leading duo Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling didn’t see eye-to-eye during production on the romantic drama, and in fact were constantly at loggerheads.

During a discussion with Yahoo Movies UK regarding her role on Doctor Strange, Rachel McAdams was quizzed about these disagreements, and the actress confessed that the pair certainly exchanged some strongly-worded thoughts on how the scene should play out.

“We certainly had intense creative conversations [on The Notebook],” McAdams recalled when asked about her original problems with Gosling. Which probably made it a little awkward when Marvel Studios were on the casting hunt for the right actor to portray Doctor Strange and there were various rumors that Ryan Gosling could land the role.

Rachel McAdams was asked whether she was dreading reuniting with Ryan Gosling considering her past problems with the actor, to which she emphatically responded, “No! Not at all, I’d love to work with [Ryan] again. I didn’t know that [he was linked with Doctor Strange]. Benedict was signed on when it came across my plate so he’s the only ever Doctor Strange I’ve known of.”

There’s also another reason why things might have been a little awkward between Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams if they had indeed reunited on Doctor Strange. That’s because, following their squabbles on The Notebook, the duo actually began dating, with their relationship lasting between 2005 and 2007. Clearly the passion burned quite strongly between them too, because they even reunited briefly in the middle of 2008.

Speculation that Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams had a number of tiffs while working on The Notebook actually emerged from the film’s director, Nick Cassavetes. While recalling the film’s production on its 10th anniversary back in 2014, the filmmaker opened up about the on-set trials and tribulations, confessing that at one point Ryan Gosling actually asked him to remove McAdams from the set.

“Maybe I’m not supposed to tell this story,” Cassavetes told VH1. “But they were really not getting along one day on set. Really not. And Ryan came to me, and there’s 150 people standing in this big scene, and he says, ‘Nick come here.’ And he’s doing a scene with Rachel and he says, ‘Would you take her out of here and bring in another actress to read off camera with me?’ I said, ‘What?’ He says, ‘I can’t. I can’t do it with her. I’m just not getting anything from this.'”

In order to get through these problems, Cassavetes decided to hold a de facto therapy session, which resulted in Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling erupting in furious anger at each other. But rather than wrecking production, this honesty created a bond between the pair that allowed filming to proceed in a smoother fashion, even though there was still the occasional issue with the actors.

“We went into a room with a producer; they started screaming and yelling at each other. I walked out,” Nick Cassavettes recalled. “At that point I was smoking cigarettes. I smoke a cigarette and everybody came out like, ‘All right let’s do this.’ And it got better after that, you know? They had it out… I think Ryan respected her for standing up for her character and Rachel was happy to get that out in the open. The rest of the film wasn’t smooth sailing, but it was smoother sailing.”

After initially receiving mixed reviews upon its release, The Notebook has developed a fervent fan base, while it also kick started the careers of both Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams too.

[Featured Image by New Line Cinema]

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