Clare Henney: Such a Loss

As if there couldn’t be any more reason to grieve over the loss of Paul Walker the actor, humanitarian and all-around good guy, Nicholas Sparks fans now have another reason to cry over his death: he was supposed to play Dawson, the male lead in the movie version of the book The Best of Me. I was aware that Michelle Monaghan was cast as Amanda but I didn’t know who her leading man was supposed to be. Now that I know that it was supposed to be Paul Walker, I feel really sad because I know he would have been perfect for the role. It took me by surprise when I saw a post from Nicholas Sparks about the death of Paul Walker:

I was all: “What? Did I understand that right? He was supposed to…no! No! Why did he have to die?” Of course, that was from a purely selfish Sparks fan point of view. I still feel bad that the world lost one of the good ones but at that point, the fan in me was grieving for the loss of a perfect leading man.

Just to be sure, I googled to verify that what I assumed was confirmation that he was supposed to take on the role of Dawson. Sure enough, I found an interview with Paul’s manager who said:

“He was going to do a Nicholas Sparks love story, The Best Of Me. We had wanted to do a love story for most of his career and the stars finally aligned and we found the perfect one.”

*Sniff* I know there’s no use crying over spilled milk but I can’t help myself. Now the pressure is on for whoever is going to take his place. Hmmm, I wonder who that brave soul will be.

Photo Source: Empire Online