Film: The Notebook

Co-stars: Ryan Gosling vs. Rachel McAdams

“If you’re a bird, I’m a bird.” Apparently not. Filmmaker Nicholas Cassavetes handpicked a then-unknown young actor by the name of Ryan Gosling to star as Noah, the tortured romantic in the 2004 weepie The Notebook, while Rachel McAdams won the role of Allie thanks to a mesmerizing audition. And, while the couple eventually dated for nearly three years after the film was released, things weren’t so lovey-dovey on set; in fact, at one point Gosling wanted her kicked off. “Maybe I’m not supposed to tell this story, but they were really not getting along one day on set. Really not,” Cassavetes told VH1. “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.’” He continued: “We went into a room with a producer; they started screaming and yelling at each other. I walked out. At that point I was smoking cigarettes. I smoked 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.”