LOS ANGELES: Over a year after Hollywood star Scarlett Johansson exited Rupert Sanders's crime biopic "Rub & Tug", she has admitted that she was "tone-deaf" to the feelings of the trans community over playing a transgender character in the film, saying she mishandled the situation.
In an interview to Vanity Fair, Johansson opened up about the controversy surrounding her decision and her reaction to it, reported dailymail.co.uk. The actor's admission, comes ahead of the Oscars season, where she is expected to get nominated for "Marriage Story" and "Jojo Rabbit".
Johansson was set to play Dante 'Tex' Gill, who lived his life as transgender gangster man born as Jean Marie Gill. He ran a prostitution empire in Pittsburgh in the 1970s and 1990s. This casting sparked a lot of backlash amid trans groups and activists from the LGBTQ community, specifically among trans actors who have voiced their frustrations over lack of representation of the community in the industry.
"To feel like you're kind of tone-deaf to something is not a good feeling," she said in her interview.
Johansson admitted in a recent interview that, when it came to her casting as a trans man in the movie Rub & Tug, she didn't handle the public feedback well.
Initially, in Johansson's first response about the row in July last year, she said"Tell (my critics) that they can be directed to Jeffrey Tambor, Jared Leto, and Felicity Huffman's reps for comment."
"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," said the two-time Golden Globe nominated actress to Vanity Fair.
"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," Johansson continued in her response.