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Casting in Hollywood rubs salt in the wounds

Early this week it was announced that Scarlett Johansson, of “Avengers” and “Lucy” fame, has been cast in, and is a producer for, a new movie called “Rub & Tug.” This sounds standard in the world of movie making, as Johansson is clearly one of the most talented actresses in the business currently.

However, the character that Johansson is set to play is that of a transgender man. The crime biopic will follow the life of Dante “Tex” Gill, born Jean Marie Gill, but identified as a man a majority of his life. Gill was a mobster who ran Pittsburgh’s massage-parlor industry in the 1970s, which served as fronts for prostitution, as well as an anabolic steroid ring that was influential in the Steelers’ dynasty.

The problem with this is that Johansson is not a trans man. And it’s not the first time that Johansson has been cast in a controversial role. She appeared last year in the movie “Ghost in the Shell”, directed by Rupert Sanders, the same director who is taking on this new biopic. That movie was an adaptation from a popular Japanese manga series, the plot of which is set in Japan, which obviously means that the characters were all of Asian descent. So when Hollywood casted Johannson, a white woman, in the role, many people expressed their discontent with that decision to not cast a Japanese lead.

And now, a little over a year later, Johansson is taking on the role of a transgender man, and yet an actual transgender actor was not asked to take on the role. This has caused a sea of backlash, particuarly on Twitter, against Johansson. One user tweeted, “there are literally so many trans actors that could’ve been cast in this role. why do we keep casting Scarlett Johansson in roles where she doesn’t fit the criteria?”

Johansson, through her representative, has done nothing to help the matter, issuing a dismissive statement reading, “Tell them that they can be directed to Jeffrey Tambor, Jared Leto and Felicity Huffman’s reps for comment.” This was a direct call to the fact that the three named actors have all depicted trans women in film and television.

However, in 2018, shouldn’t actors be more culturally aware and sensitive to the lack of roles provided to minorities, whether they be people of color or transgender? At the end of the day, white, straight actors are still the predominate faces we see every day on the small and big screen, and for Johansson not to be more sensitive to that is disappointing in a time where equality matters more than ever.

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