During the day he spent hours making furniture and the kitchen table featured in the movie is actually one of his creations.
The two main stars did not get on
"We inspired the worst in each other," Gosling told The Guardian about his co-star, Rachel McAdams.
"It was a strange experience, making a love story and not getting along with your co-star in any way."
In fact Gosling wanted director Nick Cassavetes to fire Rachel McAdams at one point during filming.
"Maybe I'm not supposed to tell this story, but they were really not getting along one day on set. Really not," Cassavetes told VH1.
"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 said, 'What?' He says, 'I can't. I can't do it with her. I'm just not getting anything from this.'
"We went into a room with a producer; they started screaming and yelling at each other. I walked out ... And it got better after that, you know? 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."
Just a year after the film was made, the actors got over their differences and dated for two years, splitting in 2007.
Britney Spears could have played Allie
A number of actors auditioned for the role that eventually went to Rachel McAdams including Britney Spears.
The Toxic singer and Ryan Gosling have known each other for years thanks to their roles in The Mickey Mouse Club.
Speaking about Spears' audition, Gosling said: "I hadn't seen her really since she was about 12 - we were both 12 - so she's grown up, but she was really good, actually. She did a really nice job."
Ashley Judd, Reese Witherspoon and Jessica Biel were some of the other actors in contention for the role and the latter in particular was gutted when she didn't get it.
"That's one that I wanted so badly," she told Elle magazine.
"I was in the middle of shooting Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and I auditioned with Ryan Gosling in my trailer, covered in blood. But there's a million that get away."
The wrath of fans
James Marsden plays Lon Hammond Jr in The Notebook - a soldier who captures Allie's heart and later proposes.
But some fans have trouble separating reality from fiction and they are none too pleased that Marsden's character almost prevented Allie and Noah from living happily ever after.
"I also have people coming up and going like, 'Ugh!' They're just disgusted by me," Marsden told Vulture.
"Like, 'How dare you get involved with their love? You are the asshole in that movie.' I'm like, 'How is he an asshole?'"
Neoptism in the ranks
Director Nick Cassavetes felt there was only one woman who could play the role of the older Allie and he cast her without question. It was his mum, Gena Rowlands.
His mum later told Variety that she was surprised the movie turned out to be such a hit.
"I didn't think it would have that kind of impact," Rowlands said.
"I think it was such a big hit because it was about the realisation that love can last your whole life. You don't see it depicted that way a lot. In most films you don't get to see a story like that go from the beginning to the end with the possibility that love can be perhaps eternal."
The Notebook was filmed back to front
The 'after seven years Allie and Noah' scenes were filmed first when Gosling had a thick beard. The cast and crew then went on holidays, allowing Gosling to shave off his beard and lose some weight to look authentic as a younger Noah.
Historical innacuracies
In one scene you can see parking meters, but they didn't actually exist in South Carolina at the time the film was supposedly set.
Noah and Allie also listen to a Billie Holiday song together in 1940, but I'll Be Seeing You wasn't released until 1944.
