Another day, another Fifty Shades of Grey casting rumor! Sadly, this one's not nearly as awesome (or credible for that matter) as yesterday's news via E.L. James' hubby, Niall Leonard, that Ryan Gosling is set to play Christian Grey. Today, the gossip mill has writer/director Bret Easton Ellis blabbing that he's got the inside track on the casting of Christian. Ellis says porn star James Deen may be up for the role. Ew.
In a series of newsticker style tweets, Ellis reported, "Just got inside information that James Deen is in the running to play Christian in 'Fifty Shades of Grey' with E.L. James support." and "'Fifty Shades of Grey' movie will DEFINITELY be written by a woman and the budget will be below 15 million. Ana will be played by an unknown."
Uh huh ... Well, just because Ellis is the guy behind American Psycho doesn't necessarily mean he's a reliable source.
After all, remember all the brouhaha surrounding his own play to become the screenwriter for the forthcoming flick? We see how well that went down. I wouldn't be surprised if he had his own ulterior motives for floating false gossip like this. Maybe just to see how quickly it would make its way around the web. (And if that's true, yep, definitely guilty of helping him out with that one ...!) Or, being that James Deen is co-starring with trainwreck Lindsay Lohan in a flick he directed called The Canyons, maybe he just wanted to hitch a ride on Hollywood's most hyped project to get Deen's name out there in a mainstream way. Hollywood types like Ellis have done far crazier for publicity!
Either way, as intriguing as the idea of casting a porn star as Christian sounds, the reality is that Universal would be foolish to go that route. Even if the guy is a surprisingly stellar actor (eehhh), I can't see audiences flocking en masse to see him in the role the way they would if the studio cast a mainstream name. In the same way that going with Gosling would inject the flick with some major cred and even potentially fuel it for an Oscar nom, casting James Deen would likely set the film up to FAIL ... big time. Fingers crossed that by floating this rumor, Ellis is just doing what he does best -- selling twisted fiction!
How would you feel about the casting of a porn star -- specifically James Deen -- as Christian Grey?
Image via Ethan Miller/Getty
This Hot Dad Wants to Do Your Ironing
This Hot Dad Wants to Cook You Dinner
This Hot Dad Cooks AND Does the Dishes
Kanye West is Gay?! 
Comments 20
Bleurgh NO WAY! Am thinking Ian Somerhardler. I am liking him more and more for the part and that girl who played Katniss in Hunger Games,(whose name has vacated my mind right now) to play Ana.
a porn star are you for real that is the last thing us fans need is a porn star in this movie that we have been waiting for to see either mat bomer or ian somerhalder,dont tell me that bret easton ellis had that idia i would,nt even let him have anything to do with the movie,in my opinion any person that talks about anothers persons life or there sexuality that only says one thing that he only cares about him self,and what he said about mat bomer that only says one thing about easton ellis that is not PROFESSIONAL,so a porn star it has to be a joke.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA oh my goodness, you think it could warrant an oscar nomination? oh that is just too funny!
ummmmm.....has anyone read the book? IT IS PORN. :) But seriously, a decent R rated movie needs a hollywood actor.