If the leaks from Britney Spears’s upcoming memoir, The Woman in Me, aren’t enough to keep you sated, how about her long-sought audition tape for The Notebook? Her screen test with former Mickey Mouse Club co-star Ryan Gosling for the lead role of Allie has finally turned up, where else but in the Daily Mail. “Britney Spears as you’ve NEVER seen her before,†as the outlet touts the newly released video. In the audition, Spears reads Allie’s dramatic confrontation to Noah, in which she tells him she plans to marry Lon. Her emotions build over the two-minute clip, with a tearful Spears telling Gosling’s Noah, “I prayed for you to die in the war.â€
Spears had reportedly been a top choice for the role of Allie in the iconic romantic drama until the part went to Rachel McAdams instead. In her memoir (out October 24), Spears says starring in 2002’s Crossroads “wasn’t easy for me†because she had trouble separating herself from the role, so she “was relieved†she stopped acting after that film.†“I’m glad I didn’t do it,†she writes of The Notebook. Spears continues, “I hope I never get close to that occupational hazard again. 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.â€
Not to say her Notebook audition wasn’t good. Matthew Barry, the film’s casting agent, told the Mail that Spears was “phenomenal†in the August 2002 reading. “It was a tough decision,†he said. “Britney blew us all away. Our jaws were on the floor. I was blown away. Absolutely blown away. She brought her A-game that day.â€