Scarlett Johansson is apologetic for her initial response about ‘Rub & Tug’ when transgender community had opposed her. In 2018, Scarlett Johansson was cast as the lead in the movie ‘Rub & Tug’. She was set to play a character based on a real trans man who ran a massage parlor. There was public outcry at the choice to cast a cisgender woman in a rare trans roles. Johansson’s initial response was frivolous. She pointed out other actors like Jared Leto and Felicity Huffman who had also played trans characters.
Further backlash made it clear that those castings were also problematic and did not provide justification. This caused Johansson to step down from the role. Several months later Scarlett Johansson has expressed remorse and is apologetic for mishandling the situation involving ‘Rub & Tug’.
Johansson had been set to reteam with her Ghost in the Shell director, Rupert Sanders. The film was about Gill, a trans man who operated a massage parlor and prostitution business in Pittsburgh in the 1970s and 80s. The casting drew vocal opposition from some transgender actors, who said their stories are too often told by cis actors. “I wouldn’t be as upset if I was getting in the same rooms as Jennifer Lawrence and Scarlett for cis roles, but we know that’s not the case,” tweeted Transparent actress Trace Lysette. “A mess.”
Scarlett Johansson is now apologetic for her response about ‘Rub & Tug’ at that time
Johansson’s initial response to that critique was strangely dismissive. She had said, “Tell them that they can be directed to Jeffrey Tambor, Jared Leto, and Felicity Huffman’s reps for comment, citing three cisgender actors who had won awards for their performances as trans characters.”
In hindsight, I mishandled that situation. I was not sensitive, my initial reaction to it. 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 was a hard time. It was like a whirlwind. I felt terribly about it. To feel like you’re kind of tone-deaf to something is not a good feeling.
Scarlett Johansson
The project is set to be resuscitated and reinvented as a TV series
Now the project has been resuscitated and reinvented as a TV series. Its pilot will be written by Emmy-nominated Pose and Transparent writer-producer Our Lady J, according to Deadline. In addition, New Regency has committed to casting a trans actor in the lead role of Gill, a complex, fascinating figure in Pittsburgh’s organized crime scene in the 1970s.
“Tex’s life story is like no other, and the rich landscape of this unexplored moment in time has truly captured my imagination,” Our Lady J said in a statement, per Deadline. “I couldn’t be more excited about the opportunity to write a gangster drama based on such a fascinating and diverse web of queer characters. The show is about the promise of reinvention, and the peril of losing oneself in the process. Tex Gill was out and proud in an era—the late 1970s—when living authentically came with the price of social ostracization, leaving him vulnerable to a life of crime and lawlessness. Having grown up in Pennsylvania myself, I’m also excited to delve deep into Pittsburgh’s underbelly as it unspools the story of Tex’s remarkable life—it’s also the story of a city’s struggle for rebirth and a proud community’s efforts to make its voice heard.”
Cindy Bruno Gill, Gill’s widow, will serve as a consultant on the series, as will journalist and author Brendan Koerner. Both were attached to the original version of the project.
“I am excited to be working with Our Lady J and New Regency to honor Tex’s memory by telling his story the way he would want to be remembered,” Bruno Gill said in a statement. “Tex was transgender at a time when being transgender meant facing great discrimination, yet he was fearless about being himself in a way that inspired those who knew him to be proud of who they were too. Our Lady J is the perfect person to give voice to Tex’s story, and I know he would be proud of the evolution of this project.”
