George Clooney said he almost got a role in the 2004 romantic drama film The Notebook with the late Paul Newman. Much to his chagrin, the actor later realized that it wasn't the right thing for them to do.

Clooney, 59, had appeared for a virtual chat to promote his upcoming Netflix film dubbed The Midnight Sky during the 64th BFI London Film Festival when he opened up about he and Newman almost teamed up for the hit romantic drama The Notebook, which is based on Nicholas Sparks' novel. Newman succumbed to cancer in 2008 at age 83.

“We were going to do The Notebook together,” Clooney revealed, per Deadline. The actor said he was supposed to play Newman's younger version in the film and thought it would be great. However, when Clooney returned home and watched several of Newman's iconic films, he became nervous about starring alongside the recipient of numerous awards.

When he met Newman again, Clooney admitted that he thinks he is not the right person to play him since he didn't look anything like him, noting that he was one of the most handsome guys he had ever seen. The  Ocean's Eleven actor recalled the insane idea, noting that they just wanted to do it because they wanted to work together, but soon realized that it wasn't a good idea.

Ryan Gosling was roped in to play Noah Calhoun, while James Garner played the older version. Rachel McAdams starred alongside Gosling Allie Hamilton, and Gena Rowlands starred opposite Garner, PEOPLE reported.

Based on Lily Brooks-Dalton's novel, The Midnight Sky is directed by Clooney and revolves around Augustine (played by Clooney), a scientist in the Arctic bent on stopping a group, led by Felicity Jones, of fellow astronauts from coming back to earth following a global catastrophe that destroyed humanity. The film also stars Tiffany Boone, David Oyelowo, and Kyle Chandler.

During the recently concluded virtual screen talk, it was revealed that he learned that Jones was pregnant when the cast and crew were filming in Iceland. Jones welcomed her first child with husband Charles Guard in Sept. this year.

Clooney recalled that they were in the middle of Iceland when Jones came to her to give him the news that she was pregnant. Although he was happy to hear that, the actor soon realized, that will further complicate things. Jones insisted on doing all the wirework, but Clooney refused to put her on a wire, considering she was pregnant.