It was the role that shot Ryan Gosling into worldwide fame, and the pin-up for every teen girl’s lust. But according to The Notebook author Nicholas Sparks, nobody wanted to take on the role of Noah Calhoun. Noah was the ordinary boy-next-door romantic figure, but despite being one of the greatest love stories of our teenage years, Sparks argues that Gosling had a blank canvas to develop the character that couldn’t be cast. In an interview Q&A slot with IMDB, Sparks said: "The funny thing was, no one wanted to play Noah. It was incredibly hard to find an actor willing to play Noah. It was really interesting because a lot of the actors said, 'Well, what's Noah's arc?' It's a guy who falls in love and then he just kinda does nothing, and then waits for her to show up and then he's there and he's still in love and then at the end of the film, well, he's still in love,' they said. 'Where's the arc?' So Ryan Gosling came in and he really brought that story to life." Which we have to agree with, thanks to scenes like this… And his undying love here… Not to mention the kind of love that lasts a lifetime… Nice work Noah Ryan.