These days, if you’re looking for Marcia Gay Harden, you can find her being bossy, uptight and a doctor as one of the mothers in ABC’s new comedy Trophy Wife. Whether or not she’s bossy or uptight in the feature adaptation of Fifty Shades of Grey remains to be seen, but she will be playing a doctor and a mother in the film. Harden is the latest to join the cast of the film, which is based on E.L. James’ romantic.
According to Variety, Harden will play the role of Christian Grey’s adoptive mother in Fifty Shades of Grey. In the book, Grace Grey is a pediatrician who adopted Christian when he was just a toddler. Grace is also the adoptive mother of Elliot and Mia, the former of whom is set to be played by True Blood’s Luke Grimes. Singer Rita Ora was recently cast to play Mia.
I’m not sure if Harden matches the book’s physical description of Grace, but she’s certainly a great addition to the cast regardless. Among her feature credits are The Mist, Mystic River and Into the Wild. And on the small screen, she’s appeared in Damages, Law & Order: SVU and more recently, The Newsroom. She also has no shortage of doctor roles on her CV. As I mentioned, she plays the part of first-wife Dr. Diane Buckley in Trophy Wife on ABC. And speaking of first wives, she was the therapist who snatched Diane Keaton’s husband out from under her in First Wives Club. Let’s just pause and celebrate that funny but completely cringe-worthy memorable scene from the comedy:
"Annie, let’s use this. He’s found someone new. You’re free. Closure!"
Harden also played a doctor in Flubber and Desperate Measures, as well as USA’s Royal Pains. I’m thinking none of that experience will prove to be especially useful in this role, at least not any more than any other acting experience. Christian’s mother’s doctor-status is more relevant to his back-story than anything. But it’s a fun bit of trivia to note how often Harden's portrayed someone in the science or medical profession.
Production on Fifty Shades of Grey was delayed a bit after Charlie Hunnam dropped out of the lead role and Jamie Dornan was cast in his place. But as of yesterday, the cameras are rolling and the film is currently on track to arrive in theaters February 2015. In addition to Dornan and Harden, the film stars Dakota Johnson, Eloise Mumford, Luke Grimes, Jennifer Ehle, Max Martini and Victor Rasuk. With Harden joining the cast, I’m reminded that we haven’t yet heard word on who will play Elena Lincoln aka Christian’s own personal "Mrs. Robinson," the woman who taught him all about BDSM when he was just a teenager. With the film in production, we should hopefully be hearing an update on that part soon. In the meantime, Harden is awesome, so this casting is great news.
