It’s been 20 years since Notebook was released theatrically for the first time and, as Ryan Gosling’s Noah memorably says to Rachel McAdams’ Allie in the film, “It’s still not over.”
In fact, despite receiving mixed reviews and never rising above fourth place at the domestic box office, the film would become a sleeper hit, finding new life throughout its releases on VHS, cable, DVD and Blu-ray. . It is now considered a generation-defining romantic film and continues to find new audiences. A Broadway musical adaptation, which debuted earlier this year, was nominated for three Tony Awards.
Author Nicholas Sparks, whose debut novel of the same name launched this pop culture mainstay, is still tickled by its success. “It’s been really fun because, yeah, what I remember (from the time) is that it was a moderately successful film, but now when you look back, it’s iconic.” , did he declare. Weekly Entertainment. “It’s probably one of the most memorable films of that year. It still stands the test of time.”
It’s even more of a pleasant surprise for Nick Cassavetes, who almost didn’t direct the film. Sparks’ novel was first optioned for film in 1995, before its release in 1996. It spent seven years in production hell, undergoing script rewrites and director changes, before finally crossing the desk from a reluctant Cassavetes, who was asked to make a different film. film at the time. By his own admission, he only read the Notebook script so he can “talk about it intelligently” when he turns down the studio.
New line/courtesy Everett Collection
Those who have seen the film know that it is a legendary story that follows an elderly man (James Garner) living in a nursing home with his wife (Gena Rowlands), who suffers from dementia. He spends his days reading to her the story of their long love (played in flashbacks by Gosling and McAdams) so that she will remember him. But when he got to the end of the script, Cassavetes wasn’t shedding tears – he was laughing because he knew he had to make the movie. “I suspect a lot of people are apple pie types, no matter what they say and how much we talk or what we present, we just hope to find someone who understands us and we can relax and move on our life with them and that it becomes a permanently good thing,” he says. “So yeah, I definitely defend it. A lot of people think it’s corny, and I will say, absolutely, it’s corny, but you know what? At the same time, my love East hackneyed. It’s just. I really like the movie.”
Both Sparks and Cassavetes cite McAdams and Gosling’s performance as central to their ultimate satisfaction with the film, but even their casting took a winding path. At one point, Britney Spears and Jessica Biel auditioned for the role of Allie, and Tom Cruise and George Clooney were considered for Noah. And while Cassavetes admits to liking all of these actors, he says he wasn’t interested in seeing “one actor fall in love with 10 other actresses (on screen).” “I’ve seen it done a million times. Then you get to the point where you’re like, oh, look, it’s Tom Cruise, falling in love with someone different this time. It doesn’t seem as authentic,” he said. “And we were lucky enough to have them early in their careers. And you really believed in it.”
Of course, as the story now goes, McAdams and Gosling didn’t believe it either – at least at first – and didn’t get along on set. Cassavetes revealed in a 2014 interview with VH1 that the two even had a confrontation one day in which they “started yelling and screaming at each other” but eventually resolved their grievances. Ten years later, the director says he regrets having spoken out on this subject.
“The last time I did an interview on this subject, I told everything. I regretted it,” he says. “Everyone’s wondering why you say that? I’m like, I don’t know. It surprised me on a bad day, but if they’re here, I apologize to you guys. I shouldn’t have spilled the beans.”
New line/courtesy Everett Collection
In a twist that only Hollywood could conjure up, the two stars ended up dating from 2005 to 2007. As Cassavetes says: “They fell in love and became a wonderful, wonderful, fiery couple. I still think they They had a lot of respect and love for each other, but at first it wasn’t like that, and it took them a while to get used to each other. But they are both the most. great actors in the world, and some of these things I asked them to play, it was so difficult and there was nothing they couldn’t do.
This was true for much of the cast, which was filled with “fantastic” veteran actors, including Joan Allen, Sam Shepard, Garner and, of course, Cassavetes’ mother, Rowlands. It wasn’t the first time mother and son worked together, but it took on a new, bittersweet meaning for both over the years. Cassavetes tells EW that her mother, 94, whose career spans nearly seven decades, two Oscar nominations and an honorary Oscar, has Alzheimer’s disease. “I asked my mom to play older Allie, and we spent a lot of time talking about Alzheimer’s and wanting to be authentic. And now, for five years, she’s been living with Alzheimer’s. Alzheimer’s,” said the director, whose grandmother, actress Lady Rowlands, also suffered from the disease. “She’s in full-blown dementia. And it’s so crazy – we lived it, she acted it out, and now it’s our fault.”
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It does, however, bring to mind a particularly funny memory of working on the film with his mother. Cassavetes remembers showing the final cut to studio executives, who came back with the note that they wanted Rowlands to cry more at the end when her character finally remembers who she is and returns to her love interest. When the director had to tell her mother that they had to do some light reshoots as a result, the veteran actress was not happy. “She said, ‘Let me get this straight. We’re resuming filming because of My performance?'”
“We go to reshoots, and now it’s one of those things where mom gets upset and I asked her, ‘Can you do it, mom?’ She said, ‘I can do anything,'” he recalls. True to his word, in the first take he says, “I promise you, over my father’s life, this is true: Tears came out of her eyes when she saw (Garner), and she melted in tears and I was like, okay, well, we have. that…That’s the only time I got in trouble on set.”
New line/courtesy Everett Collection
Besides the memorable performances, Sparks, whose latest book Counting miracles comes out in September, says the feedback he gets most about the film and novel is how people relate to the story.
“’This is the story of my parents,’ or ‘This is the story of my wife and me,’ things like that. I’ve heard this quite often over the years, very frequently. And I think that’s why this story resonates. I think most families, most people have, in some way, a personal connection to dementia,” he says. “It answers this question: What if I’m lost? Am I going to be alone? And the answer in Notebook it’s no, he’s going to love you anyway.
It also helps that the film “holds up pretty well” to modern audiences. Cassavetes says he was able to experience it a few years ago when he took his youngest daughter – who had been “way too cool” to have seen it before – to a screening of the film in the frame of a career retrospective for Rowlands. He says he looked at his daughter during the film and saw her “completely destroyed.” “She couldn’t even believe it,” he said, laughing.
Think for This Looking back, Cassavetes concludes: “Ryan and Rachel have had great careers; they are completely different people from the kids they were. Mom has Alzheimer’s, (Garner) is dead, (Shepard) is dead. It’s a different life period now. We’ve probably all made great films that didn’t do very well over the years, but this one has entered the zeitgeist, and it’s a beautiful memory, and I’m happy that people like it there.”
Notebook is available in digital version.
You can get more information about Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, find support services, donate to research efforts and more at the Alzheimer’s Association, the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America and other sites.