Los Angeles

Clooney recalled how he and Newman, who died in 2008 after a long battle with cancer, almost joined the cast of the 2004 romantic film based on Nicholas Sparks' novel, reports people.com.

Clooney said: "We were going to do 'The Notebook' together. Basically, I was going to play him as a young man, and it was funny. We met and said, ‘This is it. It's going to be great'."

However, Clooney went home and watched a number of Newman's iconic films, reports Deadline.

"He's one of the handsomest guys you've ever seen. We met up (again) and I said, ‘I can't play you. I don't look anything like you. This is insane'," Clooney recalled.

"We just wanted to do it because we wanted to work together, (but) it ended up being not the right thing for us to do."

Ultimately, "The Notebook" saw actor Ryan Gosling playing Noah Calhoun with James Garner as the older version. Rachel McAdams starred opposite Gosling as Allie Hamilton and Gena Rowlands acted opposite Garner.

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