James Marsden says The Notebook fans STILL approach him and say they're Team Lon

Virgin Radio

7 Apr 2022, 15:03

Can you imagine being in something so iconic people come up to you in the streets and talk to you about it? Us neither. Well, it does if your name's James Marsden and you've starred in the 2004 tearjerker The Notebook.  

"We had hoped that it was going to be a touching romance movie, but we did not see how iconic of a movie that would become," Marsden told PEOPLE about his role as Allie's jilted fiancé Lon Hammond.

"No one anticipated that. And I feel really proud to be a part of it.

"That's a movie that I still get talked about to this day, when people pass down the street saying, 'I'm Team Lon,'" Marsden said. "I hear quite a bit."

Currently starring in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, he plays the animal's father figure Tom.

He said: "That's what Sonic was looking for in the first film, was a connection. He felt like an outlier. He was an alien. And he found Tom and Maddie [Tika Sumpter].

"They took him in and they were friends at first. I don't think Tom woke up one morning and said, 'I want to be a father to this kid.'

"It just sort of evolved into that. It's nice to take some of the ideas I've learned as a parent and incorporate them into some of these beautiful scenes with Sonic."

On his own parenting, he said: "Each kid is just so different. They have their own personalities and you find yourself parenting in slightly different ways for each one — same principles, but each one requires their own specific type of care. There's no real handbook for how to do it."

We wish there was.