Fifty Shades of Grey: Ian Somerhalder Should Play Christian Grey

WhatCulture readers choose Vampire Diaries' star to play the lead in film adaptation of EL James' erotic best-seller.

By Simon Gallagher /

Earlier this week we ran a poll asking Fifty Shades of Grey fans to share their fantasy choices for Christian Grey, and we can now reveal, as expected that Vampire Diaries star Ian Somerhalder is the run-away winner with 34% of the vote, beating Christian Bale into second place with 15% and White Collar's Matt Bomer, last seen taking his clothes off in Magic Mike, who came in third with 14% of the votes. Here's the full list of results:

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Ian Somerhalder - 33% Christian Bale - 15% Matt Bomer - 14% Jensen Ackles - 10& Channing Tatum - 5% Ryan Phillippe - 2% Armie Hammer - 1% Tom Hardy - 1% Additionally, 17% of the vote went to the "Other" option with Alexander Skarsgard, Colin Egglesfield, Ryan Gosling and Henry Cavill suggested the most of the many, many actors put forward. Unfortunately therein lies the problem for whoever handles the Fifty Shades casting: Christian Grey is many things to many women, and personal taste will affect the film adaptations reception with fans of the source books. But Somerhalder does appear to fit the bill: he is around the right age, bears physical resemblance to some decriptive passages dedicated to Grey and more importantly for the heritage of the character, he has experience playing darker, supernatural characters, thanks to his work on Vampire Diaries (Christian started life as Edward Cullen, after all). So, Fifty Shades fans - do you agree that Somerhalder would make the perfect Christian Grey? Or do you think one of the other polled actors would be better? Check out our run-down of 10 actors who we think would be good for the role by clicking Next below, and remember to comment with your own suggestions.