A year ago, “Avengers” actress Scarlett Johansson was under fire for whitewashing an Asian character in Rupert Sanders’ adaptation of famous Japanese manga, “Ghost In The Shell”.
Now, working with the same director, the actress has sparked outrage again when she signed on to play a transgender man in Sanders’ upcoming “Rub & Tug”.
Naturally, many were unhappy with the filmmakers’ choice of casting ScarJo who is a cisgender woman in the role, when they could have given the opportunity to a real trans man.
Bustle then reached out to the actress’ rep for a comment and got the following response, “Tell them that they can be directed to Jeffrey Tambor, Jared Leto, and Felicity Huffman‘s reps for comment.” Tambor, Leto, and Huffman all played transgender characters and received awards and recognitions for their work.
Sadly, ScarJo’s comment certainly doesn’t help with the situation and it only made matters worse as the response is seen as selfish and ignorant. Her statement seems to imply that hiring cisgender actors in transgender roles shouldn’t be a problem since cisgender actors have been doing a great job in those roles.
But apparently, Johansson has completely missed the point. Many social media users stated that letting her playing the trans role will only deprives a transgender actor the opportunity to play a character who matches his or her gender onscreen.
https://twitter.com/rileyjsilverman/status/1014249539186774017
What’s next? Is Scarlett Johansson going to play Barack Obama?
— Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) July 4, 2018
https://twitter.com/HannaFlint/status/1014276556959682565
We have to stop hiring non-trans actors to play trans characters. In my opinion, it's equally as traumatic & offensive as black-face. It also shows how lazy, unwoke, and complicit in transphobia you are. #CASTAUTHENTICALLY! https://t.co/3WW1cOzrEE
— Steven Canals (@StevenCanals) July 3, 2018
https://twitter.com/MxEmber/status/1014181314327646208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1014181314327646208&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.indiewire.com%2F2018%2F07%2Fscarlett-johansson-defends-transgender-rub-tug-role-1201981002%2F
“Rub & Tug” is a story which takes place in 1970s, about a transgender man, Dante “Tex” Gill, who runs a massage parlors that served as fronts for prostitution.
Sources: Bustle, Indie Wire
