Andy Serkis receives major backlash for defending Scarlett Johansson being cast as a trans man

By Deputy Chief EditorDecember 4, 2018

128 2 minutes read

People arent happy with the Gollum actor (REX/Shutterstock)

Lord Of The Rings actor Andy Serkis has received a huge amount of backlash for defending Scarlett Johansson after she was cast as a transgender man in film Rub & Tug.

Back in July, Scarlett pulled out of the film in which she was cast as Dante Tex Gill, a notorious massage-parlour operator in the 70s and 80s.

However, the British actor argued to Variety: Actors should be able to play anything, and thats why I love performance capture technology.

What should be the point is that whatever colour your skin is, whatever shape you are, whatever height you are, whatever your makeup is as an actor, you should have the ability to play anything.

However, people have not been having it.

Its not about being able to play anything, one tweet read.

Its about having empathy when trans actors arent given the chance to play anything and then when there are trans characters they lose roles to cis actors who are given the chance to play cis and trans.

Cis man has opinion on something that doesn't affect him directly. Why are we even still asking cis people this

— Vespula Vulgaris (@svartvulgaris) December 2, 2018

Another added: Cis man has opinion on something that doesnt affect him directly. Why are we even still asking cis people this.

This is getting boring, another pointed out. But he gave the most ridiculous response to the question. If you have to resort to CGI to make an actor the right gender or race for a role, then you probably hired the wrong actor.

In other words trans actors should accept never ever getting a chance, one reader tweeted. Because thats what this is about. Declare trans people arent need for trans roles while refusing to ever consider trans people for cis roles.

More: Scarlett Johansson

Its not the first time Scarletts run into trouble with her casting in a role.

She was accused of whitewashing 2017 film Ghost In The Shell when she was controversially cast as Major Motoko Kusanagi, a character who was Japanese in the original series that the film was based on.

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