The Notebook starring Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling is perhaps one of the most romantic movies of all time.
But it’s not just McAdams and Gosling who captured our hearts two decades ago as Allie and Noah, but also Gena Rowlands and James Garner, who play the couple in their twilight years.
On Tuesday, 20 years after the release of The Notebook, director and Rowlands’ son Nick Cassavetes revealed that his mother had been living with Alzheimer’s for the past five years, mirroring her character’s storyline in the hit film, based in Nicholas Sparks. novel.
But many fans may not know that the film, which grossed more than $117 million worldwide, was actually inspired by a true story.
Sparks revealed that he was inspired by his ex-wife’s grandparents and their epic love story when writing the story of characters Noah Calhoun and Allie Hamilton.
The Notebook, starring Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams, was released 20 years ago and was based on a novel by Nicholas Sparks.
Sparks has revealed that Noah and Allie’s story was based on a real-life couple. James Garner and Gena Rowlands appear here in the 2004 film.
The Notebook tells the touching love story between hard-working Noah (played by Gosling) and wealthy Allie (McAdams), who fall deeply in love while defying social differences.
The 2004 film cuts between the unlikely couple’s passionate youth and the present day, where an elderly Noah, disguised as ‘Duke,’ reads his story in a notebook to a fellow nursing home resident: his wife, Allie (played by Gena Rowlands). that she has dementia.
Sparks revealed that the story was inspired by ex-wife Cathy’s grandparents, who also enjoyed a passionate summer romance, only to be separated by her grandmother’s strict parents.
Cathy’s grandmother became engaged to another man, just as Allie does in the film, but she never forgot Noah and eventually returned to him and the couple married.
“Cathy’s grandparents were a great couple, and in many ways their story (is The Notebook),” Sparks told The Wall Street Journal in 2016.
A few years later, in 2021, the Herald-Tribune reported that Sparks told a crowd in Bradenton, Florida, that his ex-wife’s grandparents met when they were teenagers and enjoyed a romance one summer.
“While I was trying to decide what story to write, I came across this one, but I didn’t know if anyone was going to like it,” Sparks said.
“I thought it was kind of sweet and it was a story I thought I might write… that story eventually became The Notebook.”
Rachel played the role of Allie Hamilton while Ryan played Noah Calhoun in the hit film.
Ryan, now a father of two, was just 23 years old when fans fell in love with him as Noah.
Sparks revealed that the story was inspired by his ex-wife Cathy’s grandparents. Sparks and his ex-wife Cathy photographed in 2013
According to Sparks, Cathy’s great-grandparents separated their daughter from her new love at the end of the summer they met.
However, like Noah’s character, Cathy’s grandfather did not give up and continued to write loving letters to her grandmother every day.
“They were separated for years and she (got) engaged and she (got back) and they (fell in love),” Sparks added to the WSJ.
Sparks has never revealed the real names of his ex-wife’s grandparents, but he did confirm that Noah’s devotion to reading Allie the story of their lives to help her regain her memory was also inspired by his former grandfather-in-law.
“Towards the end of her life, she (contracted) dementia… and he is with her, showing her… drawings and photographs,” he explained.
‘He didn’t have a notebook, but it was an album that would guide her and tell her about their lives together. “I just thought there was something really beautiful about that whole concept and that’s why I tried to do it in The Notebook,” Sparks added.
It is unknown exactly how long Cathy’s grandparents were together, but they were in a relationship for over 60 years.
Gena Rowlands, who played older Allie in the film, has revealed that she has Alzheimer’s
The Notebook was released in the United States on June 25, 2004, and grossed more than $117 million worldwide.
Sparks wrote about the real-life couple in his website: ‘What I remember most… is the way they treated each other. The way her eyes sparkled when he looked at her, the way she held her hand, the way he made her tea and took care of her.
“I remember seeing them together and thinking that after sixty years of marriage, these two people treated each other exactly the same way my wife and I treated each other after twelve hours (of marriage).”
As the film marked 20 years since its release, the family of Rowlands, 94, revealed that, like her character, she had been suffering from Alzheimer’s for the past five years and was now “in the throes of dementia.”
The heartbreaking health update was announced by his son, Cassavetes, to Entertainment Weekly.
Cassavetes said, “I got my mom to play the older Allie and we spent a lot of time talking about Alzheimer’s and wanting to be real with it, and now, for the last five years, she’s had Alzheimer’s.”
‘She is in full dementia. And she is crazy: we lived it, she acted and now she falls on us.”
In a 2004 interview with O Magazine, Rowlands talked about how her mother’s struggle with the disease affected her decision to play Allie.
“I went through that with my mother, and if Nick hadn’t directed the movie, I don’t think I would have done it; it’s too difficult. It was a tough but wonderful movie.”