Editorials

What Annoyed the Internet This Week?

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6 July 2018

By Bronwen

Despite movie production being impossible without them, actors act as though they have no control whatsoever over decisions made with regard to casting. This week, Scarlett Johansson has come under fire again for ‘stealing’ a role in a movie from a marginalised person.

Two years ago, she played Major Motoko Kusanagi in the live-action version of Ghost in the Shell – a Japanese manga series. Johansson and the producers of the film were criticised for ‘whitewashing’. After all, there are many Japanese actors who could have portrayed the character more truly and appropriately.

In 2016 Johansson received tons of backlash for going ahead and making the film in spite of the whitewashing accusations. This time around, Johansson is going to playing a transgender man in the upcoming film ‘Rub & Tug’.

The film will tell the real-life story of Dante “Tex” Gill, a trans man who ran prostitution dens disguised as massage parlours in the 1970s and ’80s.

(Dante “Tex” Gill)

As you can see, there’s not much of a likeness between Tex and Scarlett Johansson.

Some people spoke out in defence of the actress:

https://twitter.com/cdrebollar/status/1014566536722382848

There you have it, folks: poor Scarlett is receiving all this backlash for a role she chose to accept when it’s really Hollywood’s fault. Some people don’t understand that *Hollywood* as a concept is comprised of actors & actresses, directors, producers and everyone else involved in the making of a film.

Most of Twitter seems to be strongly against Johansson playing Tex. Here are some of my favourite tweets of the last week relating the ‘cis-washing'(?) of yet another role.

https://twitter.com/Party_Harderson/status/1014583530024648704

We’ll start with the most diplomatic tweet. It’s probably true that Johansson has been more careless than malicious while accepting this role but her response to the criticism shows how much regard she has for the trans community. Rather than defend herself, she pointed the finger at Jared Leto, Jeffrey Tambor and Felicity Huffman as if to say “they’ve all done it so why can’t I?”.

This tweet is excellent satire.

We can all imagine this being Johansson’s exact reaction to being asked to play Tex.

Perhaps this is exactly how she decides which role she will play next- there doesn’t seem to be much logic in it.

 

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