Scarlett Johansson Responds To 'Ciswashing' Claims Over Transgender Role
Scarlett Johansson has responded to social media criticism over her casting as a transgender man in upcoming movie Rub & Tug.
It was announced recently that the 33 year old actress will be playing the role of Dante ‘Tex’ Gill, a massage parlour operator in late-‘70s / early ‘80s Pittsburgh. Born Lois Jean Gill, the entrepreneur lived as a man, adopting male clothing and hairstyles.
Following an initial backlash to that announcement, Johansson’s reps reportedly got in contact with Bustle and are quoted as saying: “Tell them they can be directed to Jeffrey Tambor, Jared Leto, and Felicity Huffman’s reps for comment.”
This is in reference to Huffman having been nominated for an Oscar after playing a transgender woman in 2005’s Transamerica. Jared Leto won a best supporting actor Oscar for playing a trans woman in Dallas Buyers Club, and Jeffrey Tambor won two Emmys for his role as a transgender woman in the acclaimed series ‘Transparent’.
Johansson’s response has not gone down at all well with onlookers on social media, who have accused her and Rub & Tug’s makers of ‘ciswashing’ the role and arguing that they should have cast an actual transgender actor for the part.
“You’re making a movie about a fat, trans man who was a crime boss and Scarlett Johansson is the first name that comes to mind? Really?” one objector wrote on Twitter, while another said: “Scarlett Johansson is playing a trans man in her next movie because her ultimate career goal is to take an acting job from a member of each and every marginalized group.”
The Black Widow star from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, at one time the highest-earning female actor in the world, is getting back together with director Rupert Sanders for Rub & Tug, after having previously worked with him on the live-action re-make of Ghost In The Shell. Ironically, that film also attracted similar criticisms of ‘whitewashing’, as Johansson's character was Japanese in the original manga series.
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