Scarlett Johansson criticised for being cast as transgender man in new film

Hollywood actress Scarlett Johansson started a new debate around who has the rights of portraying the transgender community other than the people who belong from it, ever since news of her casting as a transgender character in the upcoming film “Rub & Tug” was announced.

Scarlett will reunite with her "Ghost in the Shell"director Rupert Sanders for the new film based on the true-life story of Jean Marie Gill, who was assigned female at birth but assumed the identity of a man named Dante 'Tex'Gill. Gill went on to open a massage parlour and prostitution business in Pittsburgh in the 1970s and ‘80s.

Gill, in an obituary in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, noted that she “wanted to be known as ‘Mr. Gill’,” and that “she may even have undergone the initial states of a sex change that made her appear masculine.”

Scarlett defended her casting as Gill as she pointed out how there have been various portrayals of characters from the community by other fellow actors from the entertainment industry, without necessarily being one. Felicity Huffman was Oscar-nominated for playing a transgender woman in 2005’s "Transamerica"while Jared Leto won a supporting actor Oscar for playing another transgender woman in 2013’s "Dallas Buyers Club". Jeffrey Tambor was in the meanwhile awarded two Emmys for playing a transgender woman in the series "Transparent", but has left that show after being accused of sexual harassment, which he has denied.

These are some tweets from people who disapproveof her choice of films in the recent:

This is not the first time when Scarlett has been accused of taking away an important role from a minority community performer. Earlier, she was accused of “whitewashing” when she took the lead role in 2017’s "Ghost in the Shell", playing a character who was Japanese in the original manga series.