Fifty Shades of Grey Casting: Should Chris Hemsworth and Dakota Fanning Get It On?

Casting director Sunday Boling discusses the erotic tale and who she'd pick for the parts

By Team Truth Apr 05, 2012 6:16 PMTags
Dakota Fanning, Chris HemsworthBrendon Thorne/Getty Images; Splash News

Now that we've all had a chance to get our casting couch on and pick whom we'd want to see get downright filthy for the big-screen adaptation of Fifty Shades of Grey (we're sticking with Alexander Skarsgård and Lily Collins), it's time for a professional to weigh in.

Casting director Sunday Boling—who's worked with stars like Selena Gomez, Kristen Bell, Meg Ryan and even Paris Hilton—sat down with E! News to give her take on what it will be like to adapt the erotic escapades (which she is not casting) and dish her picks for Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele...

Chris Hemsworth and Dakota Fanning! Can you picture it?!

OK, we were a bit skeptical when we first heard the pairing, too (actually, our first thought was, "Ew! Gross! Creepy!"), but hear Sunday out:

"One of the characteristics that really stood out for me for Anastasia Steele is her simplicity. Once a person has grown up, things change and you never go back to that innocence," Sunday explains, citing Emmy Rossum, Emma Stone and Amanda Seyfried as some of the names she'd heard thrown around.

"I personally, in reading it, kept seeing Dakota Fanning's face, basically because she has the big blues eyes and she's had brown hair in the past."

It might seem just plain, well, wrong dropping sweet little Dakota into a world of S&M, but that's kind of the point. Ana was just your average, virginal college gal before she met Christian—and that all changed.

Plus, Ms. Fanning has never shied away from sexy roles in the past—she raised some eyebrows with her turn opposite Kristen Stewart in The Runaways (remember all that sex, drugs, and rock and roll?) and left plenty of jaws on the floor with Hounddog.

As for Christian?

"With Christian Grey, he is so manly, and in the book you're made to believe there is no one hotter than this man," Sunday explains, saying Alex Pettyfer, Ryan Gosling and Chris Pine have been ideas thrown around.

"It's hard to cast the man that would fulfill all of our dreams. I personally kept going back to Chris Hemsworth—yes, I guess I'm in love with Thor!"

Not a bad idea at all. He's definitely got the looks, and we know those Hemsworth boys love doing their franchises proud (brother Liam Hemsworth, of course, in The Hunger Games and Chris in his Star Trek cameo and Snow White and the Huntsman role).

Hmmm, it all makes sense, sure, but we're still not sure we could watch the two cozy up on screen. And it might not matter anyway, if whoever eventually casts the flick doesn't decide to go with a couple of hot unknowns instead.

Watch the video to find out all sorts of casting biz info—like what it will be like to work with an author to bring the work to life, how open the actors will have to be to the kinky scenes and the best way to keep casting scoop under wraps!