Scarlett Johansson will no longer play a transgender man in her next film

I vote for Hunter S. Thompson.

Although Sally said it better and at length, you don’t really know much about how Hollywood works, do you? Only a fraction of movie ideas, treatments, and scripts are ever produced.

I’m left wondering where’s the end of the line on this identity politics train. Will a rich actor not be able to play a poor character? Will only a cancer patient be able to play a cancer patient? No cancer survivors please, they just wouldn’t be authentic enough!

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I know plenty thanks.

When a subject catches the public’s attention sufficiently, it will get films made about it. Without superstars and big financing, these films may be more obscure, but films will get made. That larger fraction which doesn’t get made cuts across all categories, trans-related films are not and will not be solely un-produced.

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if you choose to look at it that way, sure anyone can make a movie on their iPhone, and hardly anyone will ever see it without it getting marketed by professionals. All creative fields have a “long tails” of obscurity. Pre internet there was a thing called the vanity press where anyone could pay to have their book printed. But that was still very different than getting your book published by an actual publishing house, which still had the odds against you being successful, just like a movie getting picked up at Sundance is only the start of the possibility of success. Unless you define success as having made a movie and shown it to your friends.

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A very interesting link, thanks!

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Will there be audiences to sell to beyond the sensibilities of rich, straight, white cisgender men? Will there be more women making films? Will women get pay equality? Will Scarlett Johansson get offered a Black Widow film?

Nah. No film about a female superhero or action character could possibly sell. Change it to Wonder Boy.

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There is a considerable space between Hollywood blockbuster and home movie only shown to a few friends.

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Apparently yes

I expect concern trollies to turn up and complain how trans people are burying this news.

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And if it’s all just about how the funding process operates - you now need to figure into this how the reaction of the communities being represented will effect the viability of your project. Artistically and financially.

Who wants to pay to see a film about trans experience that trans people say is bogus? Who’ll vote to give it any award or recognition if it’s such a failure?

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God damn!

Thank you Me Too!

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Right? And if we institute any more gun control measures, pretty soon they’ll be coming after your squirt gun!

Careful there son, that slope you’re standing on looks mighty slippery.

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Totally should have cast Ryan Reynolds as the Brooklyn mob boss and Scarlett as the Asian kid who wants to join the mob.

Though I’m perfectly fine with Philly being a more authentic NYC.

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I’m sure she has other offers in the pipeline, and “straight actors should be allowed to play trans characters” is not a hill I imagine she wants to die on. Better to bow out now, than be a magnet for controversy for the rest of the film production.

Now the question is will the film in fact be produced. Johansson is probably not worried about her next paycheck, but there is a whole army of crafts and technical people who were looking at Rub & Tug for theirs.

Right now, trans issues are front and center on the concern display, so at this point your questions are just silly. Five years from now it could very easily be something different.

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There’s plenty of straight trans people- queer ones too.

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I’m not sure that’s the way the light is falling.

The best foreign language film at the oscars had a trans actress play a trans character.
I think that Hollywood is stagnant and has fallen way behind series and younger audiences ftr.
Watching some cis man ‘transform’ into a trans character … again … isn’t going to revitalize film.
Watching Charlize Theron transform in Monster was interesting to me. Similarly watching a trans actor transform into a 17th century ship builder who inadvertently stumbles upon an ancient maritime secret for mixing manta ray dna with the pitch and thus turning the ship into a living sea creature would also be interesting.
But film quality is just one part of the debate; the other is how few trans actors get work. I would say ‘don’t knock it until we try it’ is a good attitude to take here.
(Published this in same thread as comment but perhaps better to reply directly to comment most related to my response)

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This directory/actress pairing surely didn’t forget the whitewashing controversy over her Ghost in the Shell casting, but all publicity is good publicity. Cynical me believes that this has been a publicity stunt calculated to begin generating buzz about this movie which otherwise would have garnered much less interest. Upcoming headlines I anticipate: “Meet the trans actress who will replace Scarlett Johansson in Rub & Tug” and “Hey remember that controversy over Rub & Tug? It’s about to hit theaters!”

Why is it some sort of reverse discrimination for trans actors to want more opportunities?

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She has actually, it’s in the MCU pipeline.

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