Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling famously began dating soon after their film The Notebook was released, and fans were excited to see them reconcile–albeit briefly–after a split in 2007. But they might have been shocked to learn this week that the couple initially didn’t get along at all, with Gosling even stopping production to take the director aside for a complaint about his co-star.

According to director Nick Cassavetes, Gosling halted filming during a huge scene and said, “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.”

Cassavetes said in a recent interview that Gosling and McAdams then went off together for a talk, and when they came back on set, things went a bit more smoothly. But according to rumors from those who worked with the duo, they never did really get along when they weren’t in character, no matter how much sexual chemistry they had.

Despite the bumps in the road, The Notebook remains a beloved love story ten years after its release. In those days, both actors were relatively unknown in Hollywood, and Cassavetes said he took a chance on them even though not everyone thought they were right for the parts.

“When I told [New Line Cinema] I wanted to hire Ryan for the lead, they kind of looked at me like I was out of my mind. And we found Rachel through an audition process and she was wonderful. A lot of studios wouldn’t have had the courage to put two relatively unknown people in a movie like this. But they did and, gosh, weren’t they terrific?” he said.

Not long after the couple’s first breakup, Gosling did an interview with GQ in which he said that their relationship was nothing like the one in the movie, no matter how much people wanted to believe it was.

“People do Rachel and me a disservice by assuming we were anything like the people in that movie. Rachel and my love story is a hell of a lot more romantic than that.”

Image via YouTube