I’ve been following the scripting and casting of the Fifty Shades Of Grey film with all the attention I usually accord to Mr. Shia Labeouf. And who can blame me? I simply cannot wait to see how director Sam Taylor-Johnson manages to make the world’s least sexy novel about sex into something that will play in cineplexes.
With the casting of Dakota Johnson in the role of naive dingbat Anastasia Steele and Charlie Hunnam as the totally not stalkerish Christian Grey, it might be easy to forget that there are other people in the cast. While Steele and Grey are the two main characters, there are supporting roles, and today, actress Jennifer Ehle has snagged one of them.
Ehle will play Anastasia’s mother Carla, who tends to turn her hobbies into unviable financial concepts that the highly intelligent Ana refers to as “harebrained schemes.” Perhaps Christian Grey will give her a hand after he finishes doing unspeakable things to her daughter.
Jennifer Ehle has had an interesting career, most recently appearing in Zero Dark Thirty, Contagion and The Ides of March. She’s also just signed on to be in The Forger, with John Travolta and Christopher Plummer. The Forger is a heist film about a petty thief (Travolta) getting one last big score after a crime syndicate springs him from jail. That sounds a bit more interesting than Fifty Shades Of Grey, but not by much.
Perhaps Ehle’s presence will lend a little bit of thespian strength to Fifty Shades of Grey. Perhaps this film will not make me want to poke my own eyes out. I’m not counting on it, though you can be sure that I will be paying attention to every single thing that comes out about this movie. I just cannot look away.
Fifty Shades Of Grey will invade your personal space on August 1st, 2014, and there’s nothing you can do about it.
