Scarlett Johansson Says She Has the Right to Portray ‘Any Person’ She Wants

Maxxam

Rising Star
Platinum Member
:rolleyes:

https://www.vulture.com/2019/07/scarlett-johansson-says-she-has-the-right-to-play-any-person.html

Last year, owing to widespread criticism, Scarlett Johansson withdrew from playing the lead role in a based-on-a-true-story mob drama called Rub & Tub,owing to the fact that she, a cisgender woman, was set to portray Dante “Tex” Gill, a transmasculine man. This backlash echoed another casting choice made by the actress a year prior, when she played the lead in Ghost in the Shell,a sci-fi film based on a popular Japanese manga and anime. Johansson has mostly stayed quiet in the aftermath of the respective casting brouhahas, but now, in a new interviewwith As If magazine, she admitted she isn’t thrilled that “political correctness” is policing what actors can and can’t do while choosing roles.

You know, as an actor I should be allowed to play any person, or any tree, or any animal because that is my job and the requirements of my job,” Johansson explained. “I feel like it’s a trend in my business and it needs to happen for various social reasons, yet there are times it does get uncomfortable when it affects the art because I feel art should be free of restrictions.” She added about political correctness specifically: “I think society would be more connected if we just allowed others to have their own feelings and not expect everyone to feel the way we do.”

While Johansson previously defined her Ghost in the Shell role as “essentially identity-less” upon the film’s release, she was initially dismissive of the pleas to give her Rub & Tug role to a trans actor, saying to critics, “tell them that they can be directed to Jeffrey Tambor, Jared Leto, and Felicity Huffman’s reps for comment.” (The trio have all previously played trans women in film and television.) When Johansson eventually withdrew from the film, she offered an apology for her “insensitive” words.
 

godofwine

Supreme Porn Poster - Ret
BGOL Investor
i agree with her in principle - too many sensitive fucking ppl getting feelings about shit insisting that their opinion should have some influence
I agree with her in principle. The only time I'll get super in my feelings, within reason, is if they cast a white person as a black person in a biopic.

A biopic of Oprah or Whitney Houston or Harriet Tubman should not be white. Sorry Scarlett Johansson. Other than that, I really don't care. Cartoon characters are open because they are open to anyone (but if they gave one of the main characters of The proud Family to a white actor I kind of would have been mad).

I believe what she was saying was that she could play a trans character even though she's not trans. As an actor, she is willing to do any role given to her, and she's right for that. What do you expect her to say?

They gave her ghost in the Shell, what was she supposed to do, say no?

They gave iron fist to a white guy, what was he supposed to do, say no?

Yes, both roles should have gone to an actor of Asian descent, but I'm not faulting the actors who took them, I fault the directors and creators and the executives who pulled the trigger.

People need to stop aiming low, set your sights higher and you'll target the problem
 

slewdem100

Rising Star
OG Investor
All these labels...I saw cisgender woman and said to myself " wait Scarlett is a tranny!?"...then I remembered that supposed to be an actual woman...fuck these labels man...a woman is just a woman...no need for the cisgender shit
 

REDLINE

Rising Star
BGOL Investor
I agree, if she wants to be Superman or Batman let her have at it. Or if the movie Roots is recreated, she can play Kunta.

If that’s what the producers want, let’s see how that works out for her.
 

Watcher

Rising Star
Platinum Member
I agree, if she wants to be Superman or Batman let her have at it. Or if the movie Roots is recreated, she can play Kunta.

If that’s what the producers want, let’s see how that works out for her.

She has a net worth of 140 million. She’s obviously doing right for her.

She has every right to play anything she wants. Be pissed at the people buying tickets to see her.

ba7f8a2078447acfd1bb09e2e2bffea5.gif
 

Mo-Better

The R&B Master
OG Investor
I agree with her in principle. The only time I'll get super in my feelings, within reason, is if they cast a white person as a black person in a biopic.

A biopic of Oprah or Whitney Houston or Harriet Tubman should not be white. Sorry Scarlett Johansson. Other than that, I really don't care. Cartoon characters are open because they are open to anyone (but if they gave one of the main characters of The proud Family to a white actor I kind of would have been mad).

I believe what she was saying was that she could play a trans character even though she's not trans. As an actor, she is willing to do any role given to her, and she's right for that. What do you expect her to say?

They gave her ghost in the Shell, what was she supposed to do, say no?

They gave iron fist to a white guy, what was he supposed to do, say no?

Yes, both roles should have gone to an actor of Asian descent, but I'm not faulting the actors who took them, I fault the directors and creators and the executives who pulled the trigger.

People need to stop aiming low, set your sights higher and you'll target the problem

As right as you are she's right too. Scarlett is correct but she needs to understand no one is obligated to watch/support her if they disagree with her decision. She simply hasn't thought out that there's times when being right just isn't enough.

As you stated no one is going to buy her playing Oprah, a Whitney Houston or a Harriet Tubman. That's like having James Earl Jones playing Elvis. No one will give watching that a 2nd thought.

As right as Scarlett is in what she's saying its not real, not in today's society. Hell whites are complaining about a black woman doing the voice of the Little Mermaid. I'll bet you 99% of them probably have never heard her voice, know nothing about the woman except she's not white. Oh the horror!
 

Simply Sickenin'

Valar Morghulis ....
BGOL Investor
Bitch can play whatever she wants in the movies. I haven't paid to see shit that she isn't playing Black Widow in anyway. So what roles she takes doesn't effect me.
At the end of the day, she's still a fine ass white girl and I would definitely smash repeatedly of given the opportunity.
 

TIMEISMONEY

Rising Star
BGOL Investor
Wtf is a cis gender woman????
The shit is so stupid now. I don’t give a fuck about non of these crazy people and their crazy terms. Remembering from organic chemistry, cis is the same or original. Trans means different. So a cis anything, will always be What it was in it’s original form and trans is opposite
 

ugk

Rising Star
BGOL Investor
She's truly a terrible actor, if Scarlet Johansson wasn't a jew, she'd be a nobody
 

Mrfreddygoodbud

Rising Star
BGOL Investor
The shit is so stupid now. I don’t give a fuck about non of these crazy people and their crazy terms. Remembering from organic chemistry, cis is the same or original. Trans means different. So a cis anything, will always be What it was in it’s original form and trans is opposite

so when you remove all the mind fuckery

basically cis is NORMAL and its opposite is ABNORMAL.

that will always be my definition my mind is unfuckable...
 

TimRock

Don't let me be misunderstood
BGOL Investor
I planned on skipping (i.e. not paying to see) Black Widow anyway. Glad she died in End Game, her character was becoming forced.
 

playahaitian

Rising Star
Certified Pussy Poster
Scarlett Johansson Admits She ‘Mishandled’ Backlash About Her Transgender Role
By Zoe Haylock@zoe_alliyah
Johansson stars in Marriage Story and Jojo Rabbit this year. Photo: KEVORK DJANSEZIAN/Getty Images

Earlier this year, Scarlett Johansson didn’t want to play a tree or animal in a new movie, she wanted to play Dante “Tex” Gill, a transgender man, in the film Rub & Tug. The LGBTQ community spoke out against it and she issued a statement telling them to take it up with Jeffrey Tambor, Felicity Huffman, and Jared Leto, all actors who had previously played trans characters. To which, everyone was like, “Yeah, we did …” She left the role shortly after. Johansson recently reflected on the controversy with Vanity Fair, admitting that she totally “mishandled” the situation. “I was not sensitive, my initial reaction to it,” she said. “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. I wasn’t aware of that conversation — I was uneducated. So I learned a lot through that process. I misjudged that.”

It’s not the first time Johansson has fallen into casting trouble. She received criticism for her role in Ghost in a Shell, where her character was originally written as Japanese. “To feel like you’re kind of tone-deaf to something is not a good feeling,” she said, in regards to the Rub & Tug backlash. Johansson notes that “tone-deaf” is exactly what people might call her defense of Woody Allen, recently resurfaced by an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. She maintains her faith in Allen, whose stepdaughter Dylan Farrow accused him of sexually abusing her when she was a child.

“I only have a close proximity with Woody … he’s a friend of mine,” she explains why she chose to support the director. “But I have no other insight other than my relationship with him.” (Dylan Farrow has personally written two essays about the abuse and has been interviewed by Gayle King, among the many news reports that followed the case.) Johansson insists that she supports women and victims of abuse, but only some of them. “Just because I believe my friend does not mean that I don’t support women, believe women,” she said. “I think you have to take it on a case-by-case basis. You can’t have this blanket statement — I don’t believe that.”
 
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