RYAN Gosling had been making notes on relationships for five years to prepare for Blue Valentine.

The Canadian actor — who has been romantically linked to Hollywood beauties including Sandra Bullock, Blake Lively and current costar Michelle Williams — was first connected to the film five years ago, and admits he couldn’t stop thinking about how his own experiences could influence the role.

‘It made me think about everything,” he said. “When you’re making a movie like this, you wrack your brain to think about your experiences.

“I had five years to think about it, I had a Blue Valentine file in my brain, so every time something happened in my life or someone else’s life, I would ear-mark it and put it in the file. “

Blue Valentine reflects on a couple’s love in past and present moments in time, with Ryan’s Character, Dean, trying to save his marriage with Cindy, played by Michelle.

One of the things Ryan — who dated his The Notebook costar Rachel McAdams for three years until 2007 — learned from his research was how different movie relationships are to real-life.