Britney Spears‘ memoir The Woman In Me is brimming with revelations about the pop princess’ life in the limelight, including a little-known secret about her acting career. The “Toxic” performer was among the top two candidates for the role of Allie in The Notebook back in 2003. While Rachel McAdams ended up being cast opposite Ryan Gosling, gifting the world with some of the most scintillating on-screen chemistry ever, Spears managed to beat out the likes of Scarlett Johansson, Amy Adams, and Jessica Biel in the race.
Britney Spears’ audition for The Notebook
With search spiking for the early aughts relic that is the decade’s biggest pop star auditioning for its biggest romance movie, The Daily Mail was quick to find the footage documenting it. The British news outlet obtained the singer’s audition tape from casting director Matthew Barry, who spilled the beans on the whole process.
The tearful rendition of a dialogue scene with her Mickey Mouse Club peer Gosling “blew the producers away,” Barry tells The Daily Mail. The casting director described Spears’ performance as “phenomenal” and jaw-dropping.
In her memoir, the Grammy winner confesses that, in the end, not getting the part was for the best because it would have kept her from recording her career-defining 2003 album, In the Zone. The performer, who had previously starred in Crossroads in 2002, also admitted to struggling with the psychological toll of having to be inside a character’s skin for an extended period of time. “Living that way, being half yourself and half a fictional character, is messed up. After a while, you don’t know what’s real anymore,” Spears revealed.
After this experience, the “Oops!… I Did It Again” songstress never really acted again apart from the occasional cameo in shows like Glee, How I Met Your Mother, and Jane the Virgin.