Playing Anastasia Steel in Fifty Shades of Grey elevated Dakota Johnson‘s star power to the next level, and she faced stiff competition to land the role.
Inspired by the steamy novels from E.L. James, the franchise starred Dakota and Jamie Dornan as Christian Grey, the domineering man she fell in love with. Their chemistry centered the story across three movies.
The risque plot, which flirted with BDSM and featured multiple intimate scenes, made the franchise a risk for Hollywood, but it was one that paid off. Years later, the movies remain some of the highest-grossing projects with R-ratings.
Casting such a big project generated a lot of buzz at the time. Though we have a hard time imagining anyone but Dakota playing Anastasia, she wasn’t the only actress in the running.
We were curious and did some digging. Our search revealed 10 actress who were considered for the role. One became a famous Marvel star. Another explained that they turned down the offer out of fear of being pigeonholed, and quite a few of them discussed the audition process as an uncomfortable one.
Scroll through the slideshow to see all of the actresses who were reportedly considered for a starring role in Fifty Shades of Grey…
