A week after it was revealed that Scarlett Johansson would play a transgender man named Dante "Tex" Gill in the forthcoming mob drama Rub & Tug, the actress dropped out of the film.
Deadline described the film as a "fact-based story of a woman who flourished in a male-dominated business of massage parlours and prostitution by essentially taking on the physical identity of a man."
But rather than "essentially taking on" a man's identity, though, Dante was a transgender man who took on the mob during the 1970s in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania while relying on gay community for support. Scarlett, meanwhile, is a cisgender woman.
Many critics on social media have said the role should be played by a transgender actor and deemed the casting as another way Hollywood steals transgender narratives.
Among many offering valid criticisms of the casting choice, Sense8 actor Jamie Clayton called out the double standard trans performers face: "Actors who are trans never even get to audition FOR ANYTHING OTHER THAN ROLES OF TRANS CHARACTERS. THATS THE REAL ISSUE. WE CANT EVEN GET IN THE ROOM."
"As trans visibility and civil rights progress in the public sphere, it has become less acceptable to celebrate — let alone cast — a straight, cisgender actor playing a trans role," said an op-ed writer in The Hollywood Reporter.
The actor also came under fire for her role in last year's Ghost in the Shell, in which she played a character who was originally Japanese.
Scarlett has since commented on her now defunct presence in Rub & Tug in a statement to Out Magazine:
"In light of recent ethical questions raised surrounding my casting as Dante Tex Gill, I have decided to respectfully withdraw my participation in the project. Our cultural understanding of transgender people continues to advance, and I’ve learned a lot from the community since making my first statement about my casting and realize it was insensitive. I have great admiration and love for the trans community and am grateful that the conversation regarding inclusivity in Hollywood continues."
Before Scarlett exited the film, her spokesperson released an uncomfortably bizarre statement that seemed to attempt to pass the buck on her casting entirely.
Reportedly, her spokesperson told Bustle, "Tell them that they can be directed to Jeffrey Tambor, Jared Leto, and Felicity Huffman's reps for comment." Tambor, Leto, and Huffman have all received awards or award nominations for their roles as transgender people in the movies Transparent, Dallas Buyers Club, and Transamerica, respectively.
That said, there was much controversy surrounding those castings, and in Jeffrey's case, he was accused of harassing transgender people, which added to the already-existing criticism of his casting.
Shannon is a news writer at Cosmopolitan.com, and when she's not obsessing about Cardi B, she's thinking about Justin Bieber and still trying to memorize Beyoncé's Beychella choreography.
