Nicholas Sparks Says No One Wanted to Play Noah in 'The Notebook'

The Notebook not only made Ryan Gosling a household name, it sparked the lust/obsession/sexual awakening of women and girls everywhere—which has yet to fizzle out in the twelve years since the film was released. It's hard to imagine anyone but Gosling as the sensitive, sexy man of my dreams, Noah Calhoun, but it's even harder to imagine that other actors didn't really want the part. 

According to Nicholas Sparks, that was exactly the case. The author revealed in an IMDb Asks interview (opens in new tab):  

"The funny thing was, no one wanted to play Noah. It was incredibly hard to find an actor willing to play Noah. It was really interesting because a lot of the actors said, 'Well, what's Noah's arc?' It's a guy who falls in love and then he just kinda does nothing, and then waits for her to show up and then he's there and he's still in love and then at the end of the film, well, he's still in love,' they said. 'Where's the arc?' So Ryan Gosling came in and he really brought that story to life."

So basically, the way I see it, it was fated for Gosling to play Noah. The world is as it should be, and all romantic fantasies of Ryan/Noah building me a house and never ceasing to love me can remain intact.  🙏 💗