Nick Cassavetes, the director of THE Notebook, has stated that Ryan Gosling sought to get Rachel McAdams sacked from the film because he didn’t think the two had any chemistry.

With its narrative of a young couple who fell in love during the early 1940s, The Notebook, which was released in 2004, has gone on to attain cult status. Their story is told in the current day by an elderly guy who is recounting it to another nursing home inmate.

According to VH1, Cassavetes’ recount of this horrific incident goes like:

“Maybe I’m not supposed to tell this story, but they were really not getting along one day on set. Really not. 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.’”

Instead of isolating Gosling and McAdams and separating them, Cassavetes and the producers chose to let them battle it out. So they piled them all into a trailer and let them yell.

Rachel was obviously not fired in the end, according to Nick, since Ryan was impressed with her when she stuck up for herself.

“We went into a room with a producer;They started screaming and yelling at each other. I walked out. At that point I was smoking cigarettes. I smoked a cigarette and everybody came out like, “All right let’s do this.” And it got better after that, you know?” he said. “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.”

More than anything else, what creative types want to see from coworkers is enthusiasm. They want to see that the other person is equally involved and prepared to risk all to produce the finest possible final result. Rachel McAdams was nearly unknown at the time, so it’s understandable that Ryan Gosling had reservations. Fortunately, he persisted, and the two of them were able to produce a final product that means a great deal to a large number of people.

Following the completion of The Notebook, Gosling and McAdams began dating. They broke up after four years, with McAdams dating Michael Sheen from Masters of Sex and Gosling dating Eva Mendes, whom he is currently with.

Gosling and McAdams haven’t worked together since.