Transgender Hollywood seeks recognition, and not just roles/
NEW YORK— When Scarlett Johansson reversed course recently and canceled plans to play a transgender man in the film “Rub & Tug,” transgender actors like Scott Turner Schofield were gratified and pleasantly surprised. After years of watching nontrans stars win accolades—including Oscars—for what was seen as bravery in playing transgender characters, it seemed that somebody finally got it.
“To have someone with any amount of power be reflective, and say, ‘I did something wrong, I learned something and I’m sorry,’ that absolutely feels like change,” says Schofield, a veteran trans performer who stars in the upcoming European film, “The Conductor.”
Now, Schofield and others hope Hollywood will understand an even bigger point—that the “authentic casting” debate stoked by the Johansson episode isn’t just about who gets acting roles. The real goal, he says, is access for the transgender community at every level of the Hollywood storytelling process, from the first idea pitch to the final product.
Backlash likely played a role in Johansson’s pulling out of “Rub & Tug,” in which she was to portray a transgender man.
Advocates are hoping that the current focus on transgender Hollywood will help. “Hollywood right now is being introspective about the stories it’s telling and how it’s telling them,” says Nick Adams, director of the transgender media program at GLAAD, the LGBT advocacy group. “We’re having a cultural moment, where the trans community is speaking up and saying, ‘We want to be part of that.’”
To that end, GLAAD and the equality organization 50/50 by 2020 on Tuesday issued an “open letter to Hollywood,” signed by a large array of organizations and companies—from the American Civil Liberties Union to Time’s Up, from producers including Shonda Rhimes, Ryan Murphy, Ava DuVernay and Judd Apatow, to major talent agencies.
“Trans people are fighting every day to be seen and accepted as human beings,” says the letter. “We believe we are at an unprecedented cultural moment where we can ask Hollywood to use its power to improve the lives of trans people by changing America’s understanding about who trans people are.”
Not long ago, says Schofield, transgender people felt they had to be grateful for the mere fact that Hollywood was willing to tell their stories—albeit with nontrans stars, like Hilary Swank in 1999’s “Boys Don’t Cry,” Felicity Huffman in 2005’s “Transamerica,” or Jared Leto in 2013’s “Dallas Buyers Club” (Swank and Leto won Oscars, and Huffman was nominated.)
GLAAD also advocates for better representation of gays and lesbians in Hollywood. But the difference, says Adams, is that trans people are fighting for their identity to be recognized.
Dutch director Maria Peters, who hired Schofield for “The Conductor,” says the pivotal role he plays required an innate understanding of both genders.
The trans community was buoyed last year when “A Fantastic Woman” won the Oscar for best foreign language film, starring trans actress Daniela Vega as a transgender character. Adams says that victory was significant for the struggle for more prominent representation in movies.
Backlash was swift when Johansson announced plans last month to play the real-life character of Dante “Tex” Gill, a trans man. She initially responded that criticism “can be directed to Jeffrey Tambor (of TV’s ‘Transparent’), Jared Leto