10 Actresses Who Might Have Played Anastasia Steele

2. Shailene Woodley

Shailene Woodley’s name comes up for just about any film project that calls for a young female lead these days. She’s the “it” girl at the moment, starring in The Fault in our Stars, the Divergent series and scoring an Oscar nomination for The Descendants. Writer E.L. James wanted her for the part of Anastasia Steele, however Woodley turned down the audition. She can pretty much pick and choose her roles these days, and doesn’t need a controversial breakthrough hit like Fifty Shades of Grey to boost her smoking hot career. When asked about why she passed on it, she said she wasn’t afraid of the explicit sex scenes or nudity, explaining “I had already done Divergent and I knew there was no way I wanted to do multiple franchises at the same time.”