Scarlett Johansson Gets So Much Twitter Hate For Playing A Trans Man

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Scarlett Johansson is getting a lot of backlash right now for playing a trans man in the upcoming film Rob & Tug. She’s playing a real-life person named Dante “Tex” Gill.

“Scarlett Johansson received considerable backlash for Ghost in the Shell, when she played a whitewashed Asian character. The movie tanked. Undeterred, she has teamed up WITH THE SAME DIRECTOR to play a trans male character in ‘Rub & Tug,’” tweeted April Reign, who started the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag.

Scarlett’s people responded to the backlash saying: “Tell them that they can be directed to Jeffrey Tambor, Jared Leto, and Felicity Huffman’s reps for comment.”

Rub & Tug is about the story of a massage parlor owner in 1970s Pittsburg whose business served as a front for prostitution in the red light district. The Hollywood Reporter describes Scarlett’s character as “a woman [Jean Marie Gill] who succeeded in Pittsburgh’s 1970s and 1980s massage parlor and prostitution business by assuming the identity of a man, Dante ‘Tex’ Gill.”