The Notebook Casting Director on Britney Spears' Audition & Chemistry With Ryan
The Notebook Casting Director on Britney Spears' Audition & Chemistry With Ryan
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00:00 I watched this audition and I was actually
00:03 pleasantly surprised about how well Britney did.
00:06 Tell me about what you thought of her audition.
00:09 - Britney Spears was unbelievable.
00:10 She was absolutely unbelievable.
00:12 She came in and worked with us for two days
00:16 because she wanted to get it right.
00:17 So she worked to perfect it.
00:20 Britney came in and blew us all away.
00:22 It was unbelievable, the performance, you saw it.
00:27 I'm glad her fans have now gotten a chance
00:30 to finally see it.
00:31 Honestly, I think she should really go back to it.
00:34 I know in her book, she's been saying,
00:35 oh, you know, I got lost in this character.
00:37 I think Britney just, she didn't have
00:39 any real formative training.
00:41 So I think that's why she felt intimidated
00:43 and why she couldn't get out of her head
00:45 for the role that she keeps saying in her book.
00:47 But she's super talented as an actress
00:50 and I really hope she comes back
00:52 because she is that talented.
00:54 And her fans and herself, she needs to do it for herself.
00:58 She's a performer at heart and she needs to go back.
01:01 - Okay, with that said, why didn't she get the role?
01:03 - Rachel, Rachel, Rachel, Rachel blew us all away.
01:07 I mean, you know, Britney came in
01:08 and then Rachel came in, I think shortly afterwards
01:12 and just destroyed us.
01:14 I mean, you know, you saw the film,
01:16 you've seen her audition online.
01:18 It was just, how can you not?
01:19 I mean, it was a very, very hard toss up
01:22 between the two of them.
01:23 You know, there was lots of arguing
01:25 as there are in any film that ever gets made.
01:27 There's always arguing back and forth,
01:28 back and forth, back and forth.
01:30 The studio weighed in, Nick weighed in,
01:31 we all talked about it.
01:33 But Rachel's performance, it was like, oh man.
01:36 Honestly, I think the studio probably wanted Britney
01:38 for obvious reasons, but Rachel just, it just,
01:42 it was her role, it was Rachel's role.
01:44 And it's like, you can't deny that.
01:46 - Yeah, and it turned out to be the right decision.
01:48 Who else were some of the other people
01:49 who auditioned?
01:50 Jessica Biel, you auditioned her in a trailer in Houston.
01:53 Scarlett came in, at the time Kate Bosworth came in,
01:56 Amy Adams, Rachel Leigh Cook, Mandy Moore,
01:59 Michelle Williams, Sarah Polley, Claire Danes.
02:02 They're all right there.
02:03 - Britney was really on a career high at the time.
02:06 And she said making her album also affected her ability
02:09 to make the movie.
02:09 Did that play in at all to the decision that, you know,
02:13 she was off making an album too,
02:15 as she was trying to shoot this movie?
02:16 - No, we didn't, we didn't.
02:18 Our, my job is to, is to find the best actress possible
02:22 for any film that I ever cast.
02:23 And Britney, it was, I don't think that weighed in at all.
02:26 I know she really wanted to do it.
02:28 She expressed that to myself and my partner, Nancy,
02:31 that she really wanted this role.
02:33 She worked really hard.
02:34 She was absolutely professional.
02:36 - What was the chemistry like between her and Ryan?
02:38 - Unbelievable.
02:38 The interesting thing was, is that I never,
02:40 I didn't know at the time that they had worked together
02:43 in the Mickey Mouse Club.
02:44 So, but when she came in, it wasn't like,
02:47 "Hey, how you doing?"
02:47 It wasn't like, you know, a homecoming.
02:52 When she came in, Ryan and Britney were very professional.
02:56 - Do you think that those two talked ahead of time?
02:58 Do you think that they talked ahead of time?
02:59 - No, no, 'cause Ryan was with us the entire time.
03:02 - You didn't have a chance to talk to her?
03:04 - No.
03:04 No.
03:07 - If you could tell Britney one thing right now,
03:09 what would you say to her?
03:10 - Britney, come back, come back.
03:12 We need you.
03:13 We all, we all need you.
03:15 - How serious was she at the time about acting?
03:18 - I think she had just come off of "Crossroads"
03:21 and I think that it was a great role for her.
03:25 And so I think that, you know,
03:27 given what she has said in her book,
03:30 I think she was ready to dive in.
03:34 I thought at the time she was ready.
03:36 You know, given what she said in the book,
03:37 I didn't see any of it.
03:38 So maybe that's just her reflecting on that time.
03:43 But at the time, no, she was ready to rock and roll.
03:47 - What would it have meant if Britney had gotten that role?
03:50 And how do you think the movie would have been
03:51 if she had gotten that role?
03:53 - Different, like you've heard the stories of, you know,
03:56 "Hey, if so-and-so had gotten this role
03:58 "or so-and-so had gotten that role."
04:01 Yeah, if Britney had gotten the role,
04:02 it would have been a different movie.
04:04 And again, Rachel held her own.
04:06 It was Rachel's movie.
04:07 - Britney was such a big star at the time.
04:10 What was it like having her in?
04:11 Or was she just very low-key?
04:14 - It's like if Taylor Swift came in now.
04:18 (laughs)
04:19 You know, if Taylor Swift came in now,
04:21 everybody would be like, "Oh my God, oh my God."
04:23 That's what it was like when Britney came in.
04:25 And Britney didn't have any, she came in by herself.
04:28 No entourage, no driver.
04:30 It was just her.
04:31 She came in and was as professional
04:34 as professional could be.
04:35 - I also, when I watched that,
04:39 I was like, the way she could cry,
04:41 the way she cried.
04:43 I was surprised that Britney had those chops,
04:46 that she could get so emotional so easily.
04:48 Were you surprised by her depth of emotions?
04:51 - I wasn't.
04:52 And again, given at the time,
04:53 we didn't know what was going on at the time
04:54 with her and JT.
04:56 So I think that she absolutely tapped into her emotional
05:01 depth and brought it out, showed us.
05:05 She showed us, she was raw, she was emotional.
05:07 She was fantastic.
05:09 She laid it all on the line.
05:11 - Do you think that making a movie
05:13 could have changed her trajectory
05:15 and maybe slowed down the process
05:17 of how everything unraveled?
05:20 She would have been in that bubble, making a movie.
05:22 It would have taken her away
05:23 from all the craziness of touring and videos
05:26 and all the things, the paparazzi.
05:29 - Yeah, I mean, it would have been,
05:32 it's the sliding doors, right?
05:35 - Yes.
05:36 - Our destiny is our destiny.
05:39 And so we can do nothing about it.
05:42 It is what it is.
05:43 And we have to make the best of what your destiny is,
05:46 what my destiny is.
05:47 With Britney, I think that it was,
05:50 it was what is supposed to happen, happened.
05:54 And I think it's coming out right now.
05:55 And hopefully everything works out for the best for her.
05:58 'Cause listen, we all love her.
06:00 - Yeah.
06:01 Last thing, you've sat on this for a long time.
06:03 What was it like sitting on this,
06:05 knowing you have this piece of gold showing Britney?
06:08 Really in a different light, I believe.
06:09 I think it shows her in a really favorable light,
06:12 showing that she had these acting chops.
06:16 What was it like sitting on this?
06:17 And were you showing it to select people?
06:20 - I have to admit, I did show it
06:23 to a select few students of mine,
06:26 who were very anxious to see it.
06:28 But I never released it
06:30 because there was always the legality of who owns it.
06:33 Is it mine?
06:34 Is it Warner Brothers?
06:36 So, but now with the book coming out
06:39 and everything that she said about the film,
06:41 I thought it was time.
06:42 (upbeat music)
06:45 (upbeat music)
06:47 (upbeat music)