Another piece of the Fifty Shades of Grey movie falls into place as the film finds its Jose in actor Victor Rasuk. We learned this week that Rasuk has been cast in the part of Jose Rodriguez, an alternate love interest to lead character Anastasia Steele. Rasuk joins previously cast Jamie Dornan, Luke Grimes and Dakota Johnson in the feature adaptation of E.L. James’ steamy novel.
Deadline reports that Rasuk will play the part of Jose, an aspiring photographer and classmate of Anastasia’s.
If Christian Grey is the Edward to this Twilight-inspired story, and Ana is Bella, then Jose is probably the closest thing to Jacob this story has, in that he’s sweet, charming, friendly and safe, but — spoiler alert — he never really stands a chance of winning the girl. While he’s barely competition for Christian Grey in terms of Ana’s interest, he does serve as a means of flaring up Christian’s jealousy and possessiveness, which for the sake of this story, heats up the romance and causes a bit of conflict here and there. Drama.
Like everyone else in the cast of this film, Rasuk has a couple of notable credits under his belt, but he’s not a well known name — yet. This film could change that for him. He’s set to appear in the upcoming Godzilla, and his previous credits include HBO’s How To Make It In America, the part of Dr. Ryan Sanchez in ER, and a role in Lords of Dogtown. He was also among the cast of El Jefe, a TV pilot starring Ryan Hansen that didn’t go to series last year.
While we’re still waiting for Ana’s best friend Kate to be cast, the addition of Rasuk fills in one more blank for the anticipated adaptation. As previously reported, The Fall’s Jamie Dornan has been brought on board to play the role of Christian Grey, filling in for the previously cast Charlie Hunnam. Ben and Kate’s Dakota Johnson will play Anastasia Steele, the virginal college grad who falls for the dominating Christian Grey. Jennifer Ehle will play Ana’s flighty mother Carla. And True Blood’s Luke Grimes was recently cast to play Christian’s good-natured brother Elliot. I’m not sure if Mia (Christian’s sister) or Elena Lincoln (Christian’s business associate and the "Mrs. Robinson" of his back-story) will be introduced in the first film, or if those characters will be saved for the potential sequels. Either way, the movie has time to finish rounding out its cast, as the film’s production has been pushed off to give Dornan time to prepare for the role of Christian, and for another screenwriter to step in to polish the script. It’s too soon to know if this delay (and any potential future delays) will prolong the film’s release, which is currently set for August 2014.
