The film “Rub & Tug” sparked controversy in 2018 after casting Scarlett Johansson to play the role of Dante “Tex” Gill, a trans mobster who ran an empire of massage parlors that were used as coverups for sex workers. Members of the LGBTQ community were not happy to hear that a cisgender actress was portraying the role of a trans-man.
Johansson only made matters worse by issuing an insensitive statement via her representative.
“Tell them that they can be directed to Jeffrey Tambor, Jared Leto, and Felicity Huffman’s reps for comment,” the actresses’ statement said. Her remarks were in regards to the fact that those three cisgender actors won critical acclaim for portraying transgender characters.
Following further backlash for her statement, Johansson withdrew from the film and apologized for her “insensitive” response.
“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,” she said to Vanity Fair in 2019.
Now, the project is getting a trans-inclusive makeover. “Rub & Tug,” which has been revised as a television series, depicts Pittsburgh’s underground sex industry in the 1970s and ’80s. Our Lady J, the Emmy nominee who worked on “Pose” and “Transparent,” will write the series pilot. Now that Johansson is out, producers are looking to cast a transgender actor for the lead role of Gill.
“I couldn’t be more excited about the opportunity to write a gangster drama based on such a fascinating and diverse web of queer characters,” Our Lady J, who is transgender, said to Deadline in a statement. “The show is about the promise of reinvention and the peril of losing oneself in the process.” She went on to add, “Tex Gill was out and proud in an era – the late 1970s – when living authentically came with the price of social ostracization, leaving him vulnerable to a life of crime and lawlessness. Having grown up in Pennsylvania myself, I’m also excited to delve deep into Pittsburgh’s underbelly as it unspools the story of Tex’s remarkable life – it’s also the story of a city’s struggle for rebirth and a proud community’s efforts to make its voice heard.”
Nick Adams, GLAAD’s director of transgender representation, praised the decision to make the project more trans-inclusive.
“Industry leaders are hearing, and even joining, the call to hire talented and experienced transgender storytellers like Our Lady J to tell trans stories,” Adams tweeted.
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