Though it’s tough to think about anybody apart from Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams because the star-crossed Southern lovers of 2004’s The Pocket book, Britney Spears makes the case for her spin on the character of Allie in a newly-surfaced audition for the movie.
Final week, in an excerpt from her new memoir, The Lady in Me, out on Oct. 24, Spears confirmed that she auditioned for The Pocket book’s feminine lead and was one of many last two contenders for the half. “The Pocket book casting got here right down to me and Rachel McAdams, and although it could have been enjoyable to reconnect with Ryan Gosling after our time on the Mickey Mouse Membership, I’m glad I didn’t do it,” Spears writes in an excerpt from the guide revealed by Individuals. “If I had, as an alternative of engaged on my album Within the Zone I’d have been appearing like a Forties heiress day and night time.”
The world can now watch Spears’s tackle the function, due to The Each day Mail, which revealed her audition tape on Monday. Within the two-minute clip, Spears grows emotional as she delivers a monologue about selecting to marry Lon Hammond (performed by James Marsden), the person she meets and will get engaged to whereas estranged from Noah. At one level, Gosling’s voice may be heard off-camera, nevertheless it’s Spears who’s doing the entire heavy lifting.
X content material
This content material will also be seen on the location it originates from.
Till now, Spears’s audition had been spoken about, however by no means seen. “We met with quite a lot of actresses, and so they have been all superb,” Gosling instructed ET in 2004, including of Spears, “She did a very nice job.” Stated McAdams, “I’m positive Britney would have finished an amazing job! I’m positive it could have been a very totally different film, however yeah, I simply heard that the opposite day. I had no concept! I used to be very lucky. I used to be form of on the finish of the road, and I do know they’d form of finished a cross-country journey—Nick and Ryan collectively—in search of the lady, and I’m glad I simply sort of squeaked in there.” In 2021, an alleged tape of Spears auditioning for the function reverse Gosling was reportedly listed on eBay at a beginning bid of $1 million.
In her guide, Spears cited 2002’s Crossroads, her first and solely foray on the big-screen, as an immersive course of. “The expertise wasn’t simple for me,” she writes. “My drawback wasn’t with anybody concerned within the manufacturing however with what appearing did to my thoughts. I believe I began Technique appearing—solely I didn’t know escape of my character. I actually grew to become this different particular person. Some individuals do Technique appearing, however they’re normally conscious of the truth that they’re doing it. However I didn’t have any separation in any respect.”
Crossroads director Tamra Davis spoke to Vainness Truthful forward of the movie’s return to theaters this week and praised Spears’s dedication to her function of Lucy. “I needed to get the genuine model of her. And so once I rewatched it within the final couple weeks, I used to be so moved as a result of I knew that’s what I used to be doing,” she mentioned. “However it was actually intense when she’s sitting on the mattress speaking to her father about how she missed out on being a youngster. That’s her crying, telling us that longing that she missed out on all the things. That’s actually her. When she’s crying on the lavatory flooring of that rejection [by her mother], we needed to get to her, actually her. She’s not appearing within the film. So it’s so curious to listen to that she noticed that too, that I used to be actually making her really feel and be that character. As a result of she couldn’t be Britney.”
In her guide, Spears writes that shedding the half “was just about the start and finish of my appearing profession, and I used to be relieved.” She concluded that the medium simply wasn’t for her. “I hope I by no means get near that occupational hazard once more,” Spears writes. “Dwelling that approach, being half your self and half a fictional character, is tousled. After a when you don’t know what’s actual anymore.”
