News broke yesterday that Scarlett Johansson took a new project- playing a transgender man.
Johansson caused major controversy when she took the lead role in 2017’s ‘Ghost In The Shell’, where she was playing a character who was Japanese in the original manga series. So it’s a mystery as to why she’s chosen this latest project as a transgender man in an upcoming drama since this can be considered her second offense when it comes to appropriate. In this case, it’s not cultural, it’s gender identity.
Scarlett Johansson would be re-teaming with her ‘Ghost in the Shell’ director Rupert Sanders for the crime biopic ‘Rub & Tug’. The story of ‘Rub & Tug’ is centers around the life of Dante “Tex” Gill, a Pittsburgh-based crime boss, who was working during the 1970s and ‘80s. Dante “Tex” Gill was known for mob feuds and running a string of massage parlors that doubled as prostitution hubs. Gill was ultimately arrested and served seven years in prison for tax evasion.
Dante “Tex” Gill, born Jean Gill, was described in his 2003 obituary as “insisting that she was a man and telling everyone she wanted to be known as ‘Mr. Gill.’”. ScreenCrush dove deep into Gill’s real life and find that the crime boss lived as a “transmasculine person”. ScreenCrush pointing to old newspaper articles there Gill described Gill as “the woman who prefers to be known as a man.”
While the idea of Scarlett Johansson playing a crime boss is exciting, the protest against the casting choice started online. Many fans took to social media to express problems with the casting since Dante “Tex” Gill was a transgender man. Johansson is a cisgender actress, which is the reason for the casting backlash.
A rep for the actress, Scarlett Johansson, allegedly said: “Tell them they can be directed to Jeffrey Tambor, Jared Leto, and Felicity Huffman’s reps for comment.”
Littel reminder: Felicity Huffman was nominated for an Oscar for played a transgender woman in 2005’s Transamerica, Jared Leto won a best-supporting actor Oscar his role as playing a trans-woman in Dallas Buyers Club, and Jeffrey Tambor won two Emmys for playing a transgender woman in the TV series Transparent. All of these casting choices caused controversy at the beginning.
