Ryan Gosling Was Told by ‘Notebook’ Director He Had ‘No Natural Leading Man Qualities’

Ryan Gosling may be a Ken doll, but he was never viewed as cookie-cutter.

The “Barbie” actor revealed during a GQ cover story that his iconic breakout role in 2004 romance “The Notebook” came out of subverted casting. Director Nick Cassavetes told Gosling that playing Noah, opposite Rachel McAdams’ Ali, in the decades-spanning epic would make for an unexpected choice.

“[Nick] straight up told me: ‘The fact that you have no natural leading man qualities is why I want you to be my leading man,'” Gosling said.

He went on to compare his early career to a therapy of sorts, saying, “I was trying to find a place to put all these things that were happening to me. And these films became ways to do that, like time capsules. So you kinda make the movie for yourselves. Doesn’t matter if anyone else does, you know? But I think, having done a lot of that, I realize that I kind of feel like my job is for other people to feel it. And it’s cool if I do, but that’s really not the point. The point is that other people do.”

Gosling added of his current career outlook, “I treat it more like work now, and not like it’s, you know, therapy. It’s a job, and I think in a way that allows me to be better at it because there’s less interference.”

The “Fall Guy” star noted that he “had to kind of take the back entrance” to bigger budget films coming from the indie space. “I’ve always wanted to do it,” the “Blue Valentine” actor said. “I just never really had the opportunity like this, or it never kind of worked itself out this way. It took me a long time to get into sort of bigger, more commercial films. I had to kind of take the back entrance.”

Gosling previously reflected on his “Notebook” casting to Company (via The Huffington Post) in 2011.

“Nick Cassavetes called me to meet home at his house. When I got there, he was standing in his backyard, and he looked at me and said, ‘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,'” Gosling said.