Britney Spears Doesn't Regret Losing Out On The Notebook

Britney Spears was almost in one of the most iconic romance movies of all time — but she’s actually “glad” it didn’t happen. In an excerpt from her upcoming memoir The Woman In Me, published by PEOPLE on Oct. 17, Spears reflected on auditioning for The Notebook, revealing that casting for Allie came down to her and star Rachel McAdams.

“Even though it would have been fun to reconnect with Ryan Gosling after our time on the Mickey Mouse Club, I’m glad I didn’t do it,” she writes. “If I had, instead of working on my album In the Zone, I’d have been acting like a 1940s heiress day and night.”

Acting In Crossroads “Wasn’t Easy”

The reason why she was fine not doing the romance movie involved filming her debut feature film Crossroads, explaining that the experience “wasn’t easy” due to her approach to the role. “My problem wasn’t with anyone involved in the production but with what acting did to my mind,” she says.

“I think I started Method acting—only I didn’t know how to break out of my character. I really became this other person. Some people do Method acting, but they’re usually aware of the fact that they’re doing it.”

Spears explains that she was “walking differently, carrying myself differently, talking differently” for months while filming Crossroads, and later worried about what her co-stars Zoe Saldana and Taryn Manning thought of it.

“Still to this day, I bet the girls I shot that movie with think, She’s a little…quirky,” she writes. “If they thought that, they were right.”

Spears Prefers Sitcom Guest Roles

Casting director Matthew Barry previously revealed that Spears auditioned for the Nicholas Sparks adaptation in a 2021 interview with E!, stating that she really wanted to put in the work to land the job.

“I said, ‘OK, come work with me and my partner,’ and she came in eight hours, two days in a row and worked with us,” he recalled. “She was fantastic. They loved Britney. It was probably between Rachel and Britney at the time.”

Spears has previously spoken positively about The Notebook, calling it “the most amazing script I’ve ever read” in a resurfaced interview, without revealing what movie it was. But after Crossroads, Spears realized she was fine never doing a major acting role again.

In fact, since then, she’s only done guest-starring roles on beloved sitcoms like Will & Grace, How I Met Your Mother, and Glee.

“That was pretty much the beginning and end of my acting career, and I was relieved,” she writes. “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.”