Rub & Tug, the film about trans man Dante ‘Tex’ Gill, may not be made after Scarlett Johansson controversy
Rub & Tug, a film about a trans man named Dante ‘Tex’ Gill, may be scrapped after Scarlett Johansson stepped down from the lead role.
Background
Following backlash about a cisgender woman playing a transmasculine character, Johansson decided to back out of the film. While many on social media were happy with this, TheWrap reports that now the film might not happen after all.
Johansson’s production company, These Pictures, was producing the project. After giving up the lead role, it’s unclear whether Rub & Tug will make it to production at all.
Silver Pictures, Joel Silver’s company, was also producing the film. However, according to TheWrap, he did not return requests for comment. Representatives for Johansson also did not respond for comment.
It’s disheartening that this film may not be made at all, instead of recasting Gill’s role to a transmasculine actor.
Dante ‘Tex’ Gill’s living relative responds
Barry Paris, the late Gill’s cousin, spoke to TheWrap about Rub & Tug. While Paris didn’t know for certain how Gill, who died in 2003, would react to Johansson playing him, Paris did confirm that Gill saw himself as a man.
‘He totally identified as a man from the time my cousins and I first knew him,’ Paris recalled. ‘He was always overtly masculine. He hated to be called “she,” and that’s what the police always did, and the papers. It annoyed and upset him.’
‘I think it’s slightly more likely he would have liked to be played by a man because he identified as a man,’ Paris told TheWrap. ‘I’m sure he would have liked to have been played by a transgender man, but in his day that was very rare.’
However, Paris believes that Gill would have found all this controversy amusing.
‘He would laugh if he were here watching any of this,’ he said.
