Hollywood actor Scarlett Johansson recently opened up about her experience when she was widely criticized for agreeing to play a transgender character in a film titled Rub & Tug. According to People magazine, speaking to Vanity Fair for the cover story of the publication’s awards issue, the Avengers star said that she “mishandled that situation.”
“I was not sensitive, my initial reaction to it. I wasn’t totally aware of how the trans community felt about those three actors playing–and how they felt in general about cis actors playing transgender people,” she said.
Johansson was cast in the film to portray Dante ‘Tex’ Gill, a transgender who owned a massage parlor in Pittsburgh’s underground sex industry in the 1970s. It drew backlash in 2018 and one of her representatives said in a statement: “Tell them they can be directed to Jeffrey Tambor, Jared Leto, and Felicity Huffman’s reps for comment,” referencing other cisgender actors who have portrayed trans characters.
She later left the film and said in an interview with 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.”
Johansson was last seen in satirical black comedy Jojo Rabbit. She will next be seen playing the titular character in the superhero film Black Widow which is slated to release on 1 May next year.