Garner shows he still has the right stuff in ‘The Notebook’

Despite his age, James Garner is still an old-style Southern gentleman.

At 76, he walks a little more slowly than he used to and uses a cane that’s topped by an elaborately carved wolfhound. While he may groan a little as he sits down in a chair to talk to reporters, he still has the charm of a man half his age.

“The knees don’t bother me now because they’re all metal. But the back and the brain are all gone,” he jokes.

Garner’s spirit is as young and bright as ever thanks to “The Notebook,” the new film in which he costars opposite Gena Rowlands.

It’s an overtly sentimental movie directed by Rowlands’ son, Nick Cassavetes, but Garner is as proud of it as if it were his own son helming the project.

“We don’t need to apologize for anything,” Garner smiles. “He did a beautiful job, Nick, he really did, and he was a guiding light. I mean he knew what he wanted, and he knew how to get it.”

Based on the best-selling novel by Nicholas Sparks, the film follows the love story of Allie Hamilton (Rachel McAdams) and Noah Calhoun (Ryan Gosling), as told by the older Duke (Garner) to a woman (Rowlands) struggling with Alzheimer’s disease. As Duke tells the story of the young lovers, the woman starts to realize that her lost history may be connected to the tale.

Cassavetes says he specifically went after Garner for the part of Duke because of the storytelling element in the film.

“I’m a big fan of Jimmy Garner,” he says. “The best part of being a director is choosing people you want to work with. I thought, who would I want to listen to tell a story from? Who would you rather hear tell you a story but James Garner?”

This is the first time that Garner and Rowlands share the screen. While Garner knew Rowlands casually, he says that he’s always admired her and wanted to work with her.

“I’d have loved to work with her many times because she’s such a wonderful lady,” Garner says.

“I’d put her in the top five actresses in this business. She might not have had some of the flaming successes that people rise to power on, but boy, she never gave a bad performance in her life and she won’t.”

Garner is no stranger to talented leading actresses. He has worked with the best, including Julie Andrews, Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine.

“I’ve worked with a lot of nice ladies — I’m very fortunate to still be married if I think about it,” he chuckles.

Actually, Garner’s 48-year marriage to Lois Clarke is one of the longest-lasting in Hollywood.

Working on the film led him to question what he would do if he were in the same situation as his character.

“It makes you think of what I’d do if my wife had (Alzheimer’s) or what she’d do,” he says.

“I know what she’d do; she wouldn’t leave me alone. She’d be all over me, getting me better or whatever — worse or better, she wouldn’t know, but she’d be doing it. She’d be trying, and I know that I would be, too.”

The birthday bunch

Singer Bruce Johnston (Beach Boys) is 62. Actress Julia Duffy (“Newhart”) is 53. Actress Isabelle Adjani is 49. Actor Yancey Arias (“Kingpin”) is 33. Actor Tobey Maguire is 29. Singer Leigh Nash (Sixpence None the Richer) is 28. Actress Madylin Sweeten (“Everybody Loves Raymond”) is 13.