When Scarlett Johanson recently announced that she will be playing the role of Dante ‘Tex’ Gill in her upcoming movie “Rub & Tug” the audience was confused and questioned on the decision of her playing a Transgender Man. She was criticized by the people for being ignorant and faced huge backlash by the LGBTQ community. Hollywood and it’s lack of representation of diversity has always been a topic to discussion and people feel that it’s time that Hollywood takes a step towards this.
Trans actors took to Twitter to share their opinions towards this matter and encouraging transgender to play the role. Johansson responded to the criticism with a statement that criticism “can be directed to Jeffrey Tambor, Jared Leto and Felicity Huffman’s reps.” All are actors who won acclaim for playing transgender characters.
While the backlash still didn’t stop, In her new statement, Johansson acknowledges making a misstep. “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,” she said. “I have great admiration and love for the trans community and am grateful that the conversation regarding inclusivity in Hollywood continues.”
It’s not the first time Johansson has found herself in the casting controversy. She was accused of white-washing in her film “ghost in a shell” where the original character was Japanese.