Ryan Gosling's motive for trying to get Rachel McAdams fired from The Notebook

When you think of The Notebook, your mind is filled with thoughts of swooning, true love, and one of the greatest romances of all time.

Let’s just say I don’t know a single person who can get through the movie without crying.

Starring Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams, the 2004 movie, which is based on a Nicholas Sparks book of the same name, instantly became a modern classic.

But, did you know that, behind the scenes for some time, things apparently weren’t as rosy as they appeared on screen?

Despite actually dating for a few years after crossing paths on the set of the film, Gosling and McAdams reportedly didn’t exactly get off on the right foot.

Spilling the tea in a 2014 interview, as reported by ABC News, the movie’s director Nick Cassavetes told VH1: “Maybe I’m not supposed to tell this story, but they were really not getting along one day on set. Really not.”

Gosling and McAdams famously butted heads on the set of The Notebook (Warner Bros)

He recalled: “And Ryan came to me, and there’s 150 people standing in this big scene, and he says, 'Nick, come here’, And he’s doing a scene with Rachel, and he says, 'Would you take her out of here and bring in another actress to read off camera with me? ... I can’t do it with her. I’m just not getting anything from this.'" Talk about brutal.

Cassavetes added that the duo ended up leaving the set with a producer, which prompted them to apparently ‘scream at each other’.

But once they got it off their chest, the director claims that things eventually took a positive turn - I mean, they ended up in a relationship between 2004 and 2007, so it can’t have been that bad.

He added, "They had it out. I think Ryan respected her for standing up for her character, and Rachel was happy to get that out in the open. The rest of the film wasn’t smooth sailing, but it was smoother sailing."

Speaking with Entertainment Weekly to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the movie in 2024, Cassavetes ended up apologising for outing what happened.

The duo quickly sorted their issues out and dated for a few years after the movie's release (Warner Bros)

He said, "The last time I did an interview on this thing, I spilled the beans on that. I regretted it. Everyone's like, why are you telling that? I'm like, I don't know. It caught me on a bad day, but if [McAdams and Gosling] are around, I apologize to you guys. I shouldn't have spilled the beans."

The celebrity duo went on to make pop culture history at the MTV Movie Awards in 2005, after they won none other than ‘best kiss’ for their steamy smooch in the romance movie.

And the crowd went wild when they decided to very passionately recreate it on stage, with a musical backdrop of Maroon 5's song She Will Be Loved. Maybe romance isn’t dead.

The grainy clip, of course, went viral and even two decades later, makes its way around social media every few years.

Tyla has contacted representatives for Gosling and McAdams for comment.