50 Shades of Grey Movie Cast: Christian Bale is the New Christian Grey on the Block

As speculation about the casting of Fifty Shades of Grey the movie reaches fever pitch, more and more actors are either expressing their interest or being mentioned by fans as potential options to play E.L. James’ S&M business tycoon millionaire and philanthropist Christian Grey.

And though, here at PolicyMic, we still believe that Christian Grey will be Gangsters Squad's Ryan Gosling, True Blood's Aleksander Skarsgard or Man of Steel's Henry Cavill, we’re also happy to report on the new aspiring CEOs of Grey Enterprises that happen to pop up on the blogosphere.

The most recent one, Christian Bale, strikes us as a little old to play the late-twenties Christian Grey. However, he seems to be surging – at least among Facebook users – as a potential alternative to the Cavill-Gosling-Skarsgard trifecta.

A recent Facebook poll, for The Periscope Post, found Bale as the favorite to play Christian Grey with 33% of the vote (followed by Robert Pattinson with 17% and Gosling with 14% of the vote).

The poll, which surveyed 2,229 online users, also found some long shots, such as comedian Zack Galifianakis and actors Michael Fassbender, as supposed favorites to audition for the coveted role.  

Thomas D. Gommes, Founder and Publisher of The Periscope Post said: “Handsome, young and charming Christian Bale has the ideal characteristics needed for the role of Christian Grey. “Men want to be him and women want to be with him – it is therefore no surprise he took 1/3 of the votes.”

And though it is true that Bale (38) is a little older for the role, there are two characteristics from this actor that could give PolicyMic's trifecta a run for its money: a) Bale is known for the radical physical transformations he endures from one part to the next; and b) the actor previously played a role similar to Christian Grey in the 2000 adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' novel American Psycho -- where Bale played Patrick Bateman, a Wall Street investment banker with secret killer instincts. 

And that's not the only connection between Bale and Fifty Shades of Grey. Easton Ellis, the author of American Psycho, who had been bidding himself relentlessly on Twitter to adapt E.L. James' novel to the big screen, was involved in controversy as his offer was declined by the producers of the film -- who might have been turned off both by Ellis' self-promotion and his comments that White Collar's Matt Bomer (an openly gay actor who also has been mentioned as a potential Christian Grey) could not play the coveted part precisely for being gay.