Daily Times

Scarlett Johansson plays the role of a transgender man in her movie Rub & Tug. This has caused an outrage among people who are objecting to a cisgender playing the role of a Trans man.

Earlier this week, it was announced that Johansson will be a part of Rub & Tug which is about a prostitution ring leader. The leader, Dante “Tex” Gill was born as Lois Jean Gill but was later identified as man. Transgender actor and advocates have criticised this decision since the announcement has been made.

Scarlett further outraged the critics by giving a statement to the website Bustle. The information was given by her representative and it said criticism “can be directed to Jeffrey Tambor, Jared Leto, and Felicity Huffman’s reps for comment.”

The three above mentioned actors have won a lot of appreciation for playing trans roles. Tambor won two Emmys for his performance on “Transparent”. He left the show last year after he was blamed for sexual misconduct by two transgender women: actress Trace Lysette and his former personal assistant, Van Barnes.

Jared Leto won an Oscar for his performance in “Dallas Buyers Club.” Felicity Huffman was nominated for an Oscar for his film “Transamerica.”

Johansson and filmmakers have been dared by Jamie Clayton to star cisgender actors in transgender roles. Jamie Clayton is a trangender actress who stars in Netflix’s Sense 8.

“Actors who are trans never even get to audition for anything other than roles of trans characters,” Clayton said in an all-caps tweet. “That’s the real issue. We can’t even get in the room.”

Johansson’s representative did not respond to the comments. This is not the first time the actress has landed into trouble for playing a role in a movie. Previously, she played the role of a robot in Ghost in the Shell. She played the robot character in Masamune Shirow’s original manga series as Motoko Kusanagi.

Critics said that it is yet another example of whitewashing Asian characters with Caucasion actors. Mamoru Oshii, who was the director of the original anime adaption Ghost in the Shell, defended Scarlett.

Published in Daily Times, July 8^th 2018.