By Kristy Puchko | Celebrity | July 15, 2019 |
By Kristy Puchko | Celebrity | July 15, 2019 |
Scarlett Johansson is at it again. The actress, who whitewashed the lead role in Ghost In the Shell and came under fire for her plans to play a trans man in the biopic Rub and Tug, is defending her poor, insensitive, and offensive role-choosing. Johannson drew fresh ire for declaring in a new interview, “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.”
As a white, cis-gender, female actress, Scarlett Johansson believes she should be able to play any race and gender. And to prove her sensitivity to marginalized communities, she compared them to animals and trees to mock their struggle for representation in film.
The Daily Mail reports Johansson went on to say:
“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.”
Basically, Johansson feels she’s the victim in these scandals, not the Asian actresses who are rarely given a shot to lead a Hollywood action film, even when it’s based on a Japanese property and set in Japan. It’s not the trans actors/actresses out there who again and again have to see their stories told by cis actors/actresses who don’t understand their experience, yet will pay lip service to their struggle while stealing roles that exploit those experiences for Oscar attention. The real victim is Scarlett Johansson, the wealthy, blockbuster-fronting actress who claims the best perk of being an actress is being able to “go to a (presumably expensive, very exclusive) restaurant without a reservation.”
Understandably, Johansson’s latest comments drew ire on Twitter:
why does everyone hate scarlett johansson this time 🙄
— Ù‹ (@remdior) July 14, 2019
ScarJo is the highest paid female actor in 2018, banking $40.5 mil. But she feels entitled to take roles away from Asian, Trans & other underrepresented actors? https://t.co/vB0g2SlatA
— Nancy Wang Yuen (@nancywyuen) July 13, 2019
🙄 No, #ScarlettJohansson, you’re a cisgender White woman: You are not allowed to play any person you want! #CheckYourPrivilege https://t.co/HZU3EuqwkZ
— Julia Lyu Mears (@JuliaLyuMears) July 14, 2019
"…and all of my many tree roles," continued Scarlett Johansson, "will be Asian."
— Leon Thomas @ VidCon (@renegadecut) July 14, 2019
Scarlett Johansson auditioning for her next role: pic.twitter.com/NBL0Igt5tU
— ððšð§ð¯ðžð«ð¬ ✸ (@cxroldanvers) July 14, 2019
You know, Scarlett, when you say things like this? It makes people forget how mad they were about Black Widow dying in #AvengersEndgame instead of Hawkeye. pic.twitter.com/bG4w77WMlA
— hellresidentNY (@hellresidentNY) July 13, 2019
Personally, my favorite part about about Scarlett Johansson is how she can take a great opportunity to acknowledge a really flawed casting system and use it to compare POC and trans people to trees and animals. Just my opinion as a Hispanic trans person tho 🤔
— moistbread â“‹ ðŸ³ï¸ðŸŒˆðŸ‡µðŸ‡· (@vegan_potato) July 14, 2019
Scarlett Johansson IS The Giving Tree.
— John Moe (@johnmoe) July 14, 2019
Dorothy is basically every minority.
— Jonathan Sim (@TheJonathanSim) July 14, 2019
Scarlett Johansson is the tree. pic.twitter.com/HdxT5e4Ziw
Everything about SNL and Scarlett Johansson makes sense when you remember she's dating Colin Jost
— rollicking game of rock PAPER scissors (@dedrion99) July 14, 2019
After this fresh wave of criticism, Johansson is claiming her words were taken out of context. She told Vulture in a statement, “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.”
This frankly sounds like a re-statement of her tone-deaf and whining declaration that it’s not fair she can’t do whatever she wants without hearing about how other people feel about it. However, Johansson did add: “I recognize that in reality, there is a wide spread 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.”
Exactly how Johansson is doing anything but paying lip service to support “diversity in the industry” is unclear. Maybe she’ll blame that on context too.