Actor Max Martini has spent a good portion of his decades-long career playing characters that were tasked with keeping people safe, and he’ll soon be protecting one of the most famous fictional men in the country. Martini is currently in negotiations to star as Christian Grey’s bodyguard in the upcoming Universal and Focus Features adaptation of the worldwide phenomenon Fifty Shades of Grey, which Sam Taylor-Johnson is directing. He's not really a household name already, but this role could put him there, depending on how fleshed out they make him.
As Jason Taylor, Martini will head the security team of the young billionaire Christian, who will be played by Jamie Dornan. He’s an ex-military man whose gruffness is balanced by a thoughtfulness that Ana (Dakota Johnson) gets to experience. It’s not a huge role, but a seasoned vet like Martini should give it just the right touch.
The novel itself tells the tale of the on-and-off relationship between college student Ana and Christian, as well as the taboo elements of the "on" side of things. It is almost impossible for anyone not to have heard of this book at this point, as nearly every living female of an appropriate age has given the book a heated run-through. The same goes for the other two books in the trilogy, Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed. It’s a shame this movie doesn’t come out for another year and a half, as I’d just gotten used to being happy not hearing about it all the time.
A former star of The Unit, Martini has had a pretty big 2013, with background starring roles in both Guillermo del Toro’s big-budget robots vs. monsters epic Pacific Rim and in Paul Greengrass’ tense pirate adventure Captain Phillips. He’ll soon be seen opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger and a slew of other actors in David Ayer’s cartel action flick Sabotage, and it’s quite possible you’ll see him in the NBC drama Crisis, should the recent retooling work out in its favor.
According to Variety, shooting on Fifty Shades will begin this December, along with other cast members Luke Grimes, Eloise Mumford and Jennifer Ehle. Hopefully it’ll be cold enough to make everyone’s nipples stand out, am I right? This is a movie about sex, is it not?
Now if we could all take a few moments to watch the video below and pay tribute to Martini’s Pacific Rim character Herc Hansen, whose fate I won’t spell out, due to spoilers. (Like it matters with that movie.)
