Sixteen years after its release, The Notebook is still one of the most romantic movies of all time. Yeah, you may be able to recite every word of Noah's impassioned monologue at the end of the movie, and you may dream of finding your true love a la Allie and Noah, but there's a lot you don't know about the iconic film. You'll never watch The Notebook the same way again after reading these facts about the movie.
1. The Notebook is the most successful Nicholas Sparks adaptation. According to Box Office Mojo, it earned over $116 million worldwide and got over $13 million in the US on its opening weekend.
2. There's a sequel to the novel. Nicholas Sparks' book The Wedding was published in 2003 as a sequel to The Notebook. The book follows Jane, Allie and Noah's daughter as she falls in love with a man named Wilson.
3. The Notebook is the first novel Nicholas Sparks published. According to Biography, he started writing books in college but, his first two books were never published.
4. Rachel and Ryan won The MTV Award for Best Kiss and forever changed how the award is accepted. That kissing scene is more than iconic and at the 2005 MTV Movie Awards they won the award for Best Kiss. When they accepted, they recreated the scene. Now, it's a tradition at the award show that the winners kiss when they accept the award.
5. The Notebook is making its way to the stage. Back in 2019, Ingrid Michaelson, told Today that she was working on the music for the stage adaptation. According to Playbill, it will premiere in Chicago in 2020.
6. Allie's has a larger role in the movie than she does in the book. The book is mostly from Noah's perspective. You get to see his reactions to things Allie says or does, but it's not from her pov. The movie balances things out so you get both sides of their story and helps you understand her.
7. There's a special edition of the movie. A post on Nicholas Sparks' website talks about a special edition of The Notebook premiering on ABC Family (now Freeform) back in 2012. This edition features over 10 minutes of deleted scenes that were edited back into the film.
8. The movie is based on a real couple. Yup, there's a real life Noah and Allie. Nicholas Spark's book is based on his ex-wife Cathy's grandparents. The couple was together for 60 years and Nicholas's ex was very close to them. The grandparents couldn't make it to Nicholas and Cathy's wedding because they were sick, so the day after the ceremony, Nicholas and Cathy put back on their tux and dress and surprised the couple with a second, private celebration. That was the day Nicholas heard the story of how the couple met, which later inspired The Notebook.
9. Rachel McAdams had less than a day to prepare for her audition. She received her script for the movie the night before her audition when she happened to be at another movie's premiere! That only makes the fact that she beat out the likes of Reese Witherspoon and Jessica Biel with this flawless audition even MORE astounding.
10. Ryan Gosling wanted to burn the house that he restored in the film. He thought it would be fitting if Noah lit the house aflame after spending so long building it up. Luckily, Nick wasn't into the idea. "He’d come to me and say, 'Why can’t I burn the house down?' I’d say, 'Because I don’t even know what that means.' And he’d say, 'Cleansing my fire!'," Nick told VH1.
11. There was almost a The Notebook TV show. Ah, what could have been. Back in 2015, Entertainment Weekly reported on the news that a TV show based on the movie was in the works. The show, which was set to air on The CW, would have followed Allie and Noah's relationship "against the backdrop of the racial politics, economic inequities, and social mores of post-World War II of the late 1940s in North Carolina." Unfortunately, nothing came from it and a few years later we learned that the network was never able to find a writer for the series so "at the moment it's in the banks," whatever that means.
12. The director, Nick Cassavetes, cast Ryan Gosling as Noah because he wasn't handsome. Nick actually invited Ryan over to give him the news that he got the part and told him, "I want you to play this role because you're not like the other young actors out there in Hollywood. You're not handsome, you're not cool, you're just a regular guy who looks a bit nuts." Ummm... clearly he wasn't looking at the same Ryan Gosling we know and love.
13. Ryan wore brown contacts for filming. Since older Noah was portrayed by James Garner and he had brown eyes, Ryan had to wear brown contacts to cover up his blue eyes .
14. The movie was filmed in reverse. All the older Allie and Noah scenes (with Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling) were filmed FIRST. Ryan then had to lose 20 pounds of muscle during his Christmas vacation and shave off his older Noah beard to transform into the younger, fresh-faced Noah who wooed Allie on the ferris wheel.
15. Older Allie was played by the director's mom. Nick Cassavetes' mother, Gena Rowlands, stepped in to play the older version of Allie at the end of the movie.
16. The famous boat scene almost didn't have birds. You know the scene we're talking about — where Noah and Allie go out on the lake for a romantic boat ride and gorgeous birds surround them? Well, producers at New Line Cinema said that getting those birds to stay on the lake wouldn't be possible. But instead of giving in to the producer's pressure to cut the scene, director Nick Cassavetes found himself some hatchlings and raised them beside the lake so that when it came time to film, they'd feel comfortable on the lake. And obviously it worked! THAT'S dedication.
17. Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears were considered for the lead roles. In which case the movie would have looked more like this:
18. Jessica Biel also auditioned for Allie and she was covered in blood. "I was in the middle of shooting Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and I auditioned with Ryan Gosling in my trailer—covered in blood," she told Elle. "That’s one that I wanted so badly. But there’s a million that get away. We’re gluttons for punishment. It’s just rejection."
19. Ryan Gosling improvised that iconic, passionate line at the end of the movie. You know when Noah confronts Allie at the end of the movie and forces her to come to terms with what she really wants, shouting, "What do you want! What do you want?" Ryan was so committed to his character, he came up with that gem on the spot. Because he's that good.
20. Ryan Gosling built the table in the dinner scene. Ryan decided to go method for his role as Noah and spent two months doing Noah things, like living in Charleston, South Carolina and building furniture. It was nice the set designer featured some of his hard work in the film. Rachel did the same and took etiquette and took ballet classes for the film.
21. Kobe Bryant once gifted his wife a dress from the film for Valentine's Day. In 2020 at the late basketball player's memorial, his wife Vanessa Bryant recalled him hunting down the blue dress Rachel McAdams wore in the iconic kiss scene.
"When I asked him why he chose the blue dress, he said it was because it was the scene when Allie comes back to Noah," Vanessa said. "We had hoped to grow old together like the movie."
She posted a picture of the romantic gift on her Instagram page.
When I'm not holed up in my room going on a completely unproductive Netflix binge or Tumblr stalking Timothée Chalomet, I'm searching for awesome celeb news stories that Seventeen readers will love!
Carolyn Twersky is an associate editor for Seventeen covering celebrities, entertainment, politics, trends, and health. On her off time, she's probably watching Ru Paul's Drag Race, traversing NYC for the best donuts, or, most likely, enjoying time in her favorite place in the world: her bed.
