Hollyoaks actress Annie Wallace has slammed the film industry and Scarlett Johansson following the news that the Marvel star had been cast as a transgender character.
Dear Hollywood. I see youre STILL unable to cast a trans actor in a major trans role. Think how wonderfully progressive youd be. Youd create a trans superstar, Annie tweeted.
But instead, its the same old “big star, big box office” routine #ScarlettJohansson.
She continued: Thats not art, its just lazy. Theres a host of brilliant trans actors who are waiting for this kind of opportunity. Give it to them. Surround them with your box office candy and make them a star. Its not that hard. #ScarlettJohansson.
Dear Hollywood. I see you're STILL unable to cast a trans actor in a major trans role. Think how wonderfully progressive you'd be. You'd create a trans superstar. But instead, it's the same old "big star, big box office" routine #ScarlettJohansson 1/2
— Annie Wallace (@anniewallace) July 4, 2018
That's not art, it's just lazy. There's a host of brilliant trans actors who are waiting for this kind of opportunity. Give it to them. Surround them with your box office candy and make them a star. It's not that hard. #ScarlettJohansson 2/
— Annie Wallace (@anniewallace) July 4, 2018
Annie is transgender and became the first transgender actress to play a transgender character in UK soap history in 2005 when she joined the Channel 4 drama.
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Scarlett caused uproar in 2017 when she appeared as the lead in Ghost In The Shell – playing a character who was Japanese in the original manga series.
And now her decision to chose the latest project has become something of another controversy, as she will play a transgender man in the upcoming drama Rub & Tug.
Scarlett, 33, has teamed up with her Ghost In The Shell director Rupert Sanders to star in the film, based on the true life story of Jean Marie Gill.
Gill was assigned female at birth, but assumed the identity of a man with the name Dante Tex Gill while running a massage parlour and sex work business in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the 1970s and 1980s.
It was never confirmed that Gill identified as trans, but in an obituary run by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, according to the Hollywood Reporter, they wrote that Gill 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.
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To make matters worse, Scarletts response appeared to ignore her own responsibilities, as asccording to Bustle, when contacted over the backlash, a rep for the actress allegedly said: Tell them they can be directed to Jeffrey Tambor, Jared Leto, and Felicity Huffmans reps for comment.
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Felicity Huffman played a transgender woman in 2005s Transamerica – for which she was nominated for an Oscar – Jared Leto won a best supporting actor Oscar for playing a trans woman in Dallas Buyers Club, and Jeffrey Tambor won two Emmys for his role as a transgender woman in the TV series Transparent.
None of the three stars are transgender.
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