Actress Scarlett Johansson has insisted that the media mangled comments she made about casting, calling them “edited for clickbait” and “widely taken out of context.”
In an interview with As If, the Avengers star addressed several instances where she landed as the center of controversy, including allegations of whitewashing in the film Ghost in the Shell, and for accepting a role as a transgender man in Rub & Tug (she later quit the film). British newspaper The Daily Mail published part of that interview early, in which Johansson told a reporter, “You know, as an actor I should be allowed to play any person, or any tree, or any animal because that is my job and the requirements of my job. I feel like it’s a trend in my business and it needs to happen for various social reasons, yet there are times it does get uncomfortable when it affects the art because I feel art should be free of restrictions. I think society would be more connected if we just allowed others to have their own feelings and not expect everyone to feel the way we do.”
Related: Scarlett Johansson quits film following backlash over playing trans
Amid social media backlash, Johansson now says that the published comments lost their true meaning. As If has now published the full conversation, and Johansson has made a statement regarding the controversy to Entertainment Weekly. It read, in part:
How about we take this to the next level?
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The question I was answering in my conversation with the contemporary artist, David Salle, was about the confrontation between political correctness and art. I personally feel that, in an ideal world, any actor should be able to play anybody and Art, in all forms, should be immune to political correctness.
That is the point I was making, albeit didn’t come across that way. I recognize that in reality, there is a widespread discrepancy amongst my industry that favors Caucasian, cis-gendered actors and that not every actor has been given the same opportunities that I have been privileged to. I continue to support, and always have, diversity in every industry and will continue to fight for projects where everyone is included.
In other words, Johansson believes any actor should be able to play any role, not just starlets like herself. She also recognized that Hollywood has a nasty history of favoring white, straight, cisgender actors over racial and queer diversity.
Cam
Why is the headline purposely misleading to deflect from the actual controversy?
Johansson was again lamenting the fact that she isn’t called upon to play any role. Why not wait until straight actors actually have an example of them losing a role to an LGBTQ person or a racial minority before lamenting that poor Scarlett Johansson isn’t being cast to play Diana Ross or Freddy Mercury.
notasjw
Time to send her to re-education camp!
Cam
Surprise Surprise, the account that was defending anti-LGBT bigotry on the other thread is here too.
Hussain-TheCanadian
@notasjw
Would you like to take her? No ulterior motives honest 😉
jjose712
She is totally right, acting is pretending being someone you are not.
Playing yourself is not acting.
ladonnadiana
A cis-white gay standing up for a cis-white woman. What a shocker.
jcoberkrom
With regards to a trans actor playing a trans character. I’ve two examples why this should NOT be a prerequisite
Olympia Dukas as Anna Madrigal. Can you imagine anyone else in that role?
Laverne Cox as Dr. Fran-in-Furter. I cringe just thinking of this “performance”.
Cam
Yeah, because I”m SURE the trans community just LOVES being continually portrayed as a woman dressing up as a trans or a guy with makeup on.
The “Anybody can play any role” line is what they use to prevent LGBT actors from getting auditions in the first place. They say “Oh, we got Scarlett Johansson to play Renee Richards, so forget about opening up the casting to any trans actors”.
Polaro
Its acting – you really don’t believe the actors are the actual people they are playing, right?
man5996853
I don’t believe that she should have the right to play whatever character she wants to play and it has nothing to do with the fact that she is a cis-white woman. She’s just a terrible actress and we don’t deserved to be punished with another flat performance.
mudgeguy
I can appreciate that you may think that she’s a terrible actress but, the truth is that a massive amount of people disagree with you which is why she gets paid the big bucks. You may think that’s wrong but the Hollywood Movie Machine would not pay her that if they didn’t get a return.
Cam
It must be difficult for Scarlett to decide between the next too roles she’s considering. George Foreman or Venus Williams. I mean, she’s so great, she can just play anything! (Eye Role).
Gay Veteran
Diversity is something we have to actively work towards. Allowing cis-white actors to take roles from PoC and LGBTQ actors is just negligent.
TheMarc
In the new age, I can certainly understand people’s frustration with casting a cis-female actor in a transgender role NOW that we have actual transgender performers that are actively working and could perform those roles. The same with white-washing characters that were/are traditionally POCs. That “Stonewall” movie was atrocious and was to-date the best example of this in my recollection.
But I don’t like the idea of saying only “X” must play “X.” Principally, from one angle, I do not like anyone’s artistic vision being compromised for the sake of anything other than their vision; no matter how terrible it might be. An artist reserves the right to present their vision however they wish. And we the audience and critics reserve the right to call it crap; again “Stonewall.” But from the transgender perspective, I’m a little torn as I don’t see a huge problem with a woman playing a woman. Is that not the point? Are we to categorize transgender women as other?
I certainly understand the backlash against her other white-washing roles and she should too. She was placed in those roles to sell tickets; not necessarily for the sake of artistic vision and certainly not for the sake of fair or accurate representation. But I am genuinely interested how a transgender woman or women feel on the subject I raised earlier. I am cisgender, gay man so I can not speak to their experience and I really don’t think anyone else should either at the end of the day.
Polaro
Using trans logic, a trans actor can then only play trans roles. Ouch.
jorgecruz
She has made countless millions off her pretty awful performances in those Marvel movies. Why doesnt she fund her own projects and play any roles that she wants? She should be able to understand why people werent happy with her casting in Ghost in the Shell. She wasn’t true to the original charachter
Polaro
Because she doesn’t have to.