‘Fifty Shades Of Grey’ Stills Generate Heat
Fans of the erotic literary juggernaut-turned-future Hollywood blockbuster Fifty Shades of Grey, prepare yourselves! Earlier this week, the Fifty Shades of Grey promotional Twitter account released a still photo of actress Dakota Johnson as Anastasia Steele in celebration of the character’s birthday.
Happy Birthday, Anastasia. #FiftyShadespic.twitter.com/CDmn5WOwBp
— Fifty Shades of Grey (@FiftyShades) September 10, 2014
This isn’t the first time the promotional team has given eager fans a gift to mark their favorite character’s birthday. On June 18, the promotional team released a still photo of Jamie Dornan as Christian Grey.
Happy Birthday Christian Grey #FiftyShades pic.twitter.com/Qe84khoYhC
— Fifty Shades of Grey (@FiftyShades) June 18, 2014
In the photo, Dakota stares at something off-camera, or perhaps in contemplation, as a pencil embossed “Grey” balances on her lower lip. The stamped pencil is obviously a reference to her lover, Christian Grey. Fifty Shades author E.L. James gave her own gift to the fans to mark Anastasia Steele’s birthday. James posted a newly written passage to her Facebook page that gives readers a glimpse into the relationship dynamic of Anastasia and Christian as it stands today.
The upcoming Fifty Shades of Grey film has been in the news a lot lately. The first full trailer for Fifty Shades was released in mid-July to much enthusiasm. As noted in The Hollywood Reporter, the first trailer for Fifty Shades garnered a staggering 36.4 million views on YouTube in it’s first week of release. That easily makes the Fifty Shades of Grey clip the most viewed trailer of 2014.
Not long after the widely successful release of the Fifty Shades of Grey trailer, screenwriter Kelly Marcel caused controversy when she suggested Jamie Dornan’s performance in Fifty Shades was worthy of an Oscar nomination. Reportedly, Marcel is referring to Dornan’s ability to play Christian Grey as both soft and hard, an odd combination that made the character alluring to the fans who made it a New York Times Bestseller.
However, this raised questions of what actor had the physical appeal and acting chops to handle the high-profile role. To be fair to Marcel, she was speaking at an event called The Writer’s Room hosted by Reza Aslan at DBA, a venue and cultural center in Hollywood. Given that the statements were made to a room fans and aspiring writers rather than to an official press outlet, Marcel probably wasn’t serious.
We’ll all get a chance to judge Dornan and Johnson’s respective performances when Fifty Shade of Grey is released on February 13, 2015, just in time for Valentine’s Day.
