Trans actors Trace Lysette and Jamie Clayton have criticised the casting of Scarlett Johansson as a transgender in newly-announced film, 'Rub & Tub'.
In the film, to be directed by Rupert Sanders, Johansson will portray Jean Marie Gill, who succeeded in Pittsburgh's 1970s and 1980s massage parlour and prostitution business by assuming the identity of a man, Dante 'Tex' Gill.
Lysette, who is best known for starring in Amazon's 'Transparent', slammed Hollywood's double standards in casting transgender actors.
“Oh word? So you can continue to play us but we can't play y'all? Hollywood is so f**ked. 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. A mess,” she wrote.
“And not only do you play us and steal our narrative and our opportunity but you pat yourselves on the back with trophies and accolades for mimicking what we have lived... So twisted. I'm so done...” she added.
Clayton, who starred in Netflix's 'Sense 8', echoed Lysette's views and said that trans actor should play trans characters. “Actors who are trans never even get to audition for anything other than roles of trans characters. That's the real issue. We can't even get in the room. Cast actors who are trans as non trans characters. I dare you,” she tweeted.
Johansson's representatives had responded to the criticism by alluding to the performances of Jeffrey Tambor, Jared Leto, and Felicity Huffman, who all have played trans characters despite being cisgender.