George Clooney Reveals He Almost Starred In 'The Notebook' With Paul Newman

KEY POINTS

George Clooney passed up the role of Noah in "The Notebook"
He was going to play the younger version of Paul Newman in the 2004 film
Clooney stepped back from the role because he felt he looked nothing like Newman

George Clooney recently revealed that he almost starred in the 2004 hit movie “The Notebook” alongside the late iconic actor Paul Newman.

During a virtual chat for the 64th British Film Institute (BFI) London Film Festival, the 59-year-old star said he was originally going to portray the character Noah Calhoun, which later went to Ryan Gosling, while Newman was set to portray him as an older man, Deadline reported.

Clooney recalled that he had been excited to play the younger version of Newman in the romantic drama based on Nicholas Sparks' novel and met the legendary Hollywood personality before filming began.

“We were going to do ‘The Notebook’ together. Basically, I was going to play him as a young man, and it was funny. We met and said, ‘This is it. It’s going to be great,’” Clooney said.

However, the “Syriana” star took a step back and decided to pass up the role after watching some of Newman’s iconic films. Clooney explained that he decided not to take the project because he felt he did not resemble Newman at all.

“He’s one of the most handsome guys you’ve ever seen. We met up [again] and I said, ‘I can’t play you. I don’t look anything like you. This is insane’. We just wanted to do it because we wanted to work together, [but] it ended up being not the right thing for us to do,” Clooney said during the discussion.

Gosling played the role of Noah, with James Garner portraying the older version. Rachel McAdams starred opposite Gosling as the younger version of Allie, and Gena Rowlands acted opposite Garner.

Clooney is currently busy promoting his upcoming movie “The Midnight Sky.” The movie tells the story of a lonely scientist named Augustine (Clooney) who races to stop Sully (Felicity Jones) and her team of fellow astronauts from returning home to a global catastrophe.

The cast also includes David Oyelowo, Sophie Rundle, Kyle Chandler and Ethan Peck in pivotal roles.

The movie will be available for streaming on Netflix from December.