Scarlett Johansson Reflects on Casting Controversies: “I Mishandled That Situation”

Scarlett Johansson has spent more than two decades cementing her place as one of Hollywood’s most bankable and acclaimed stars. From her breakout at 19 in Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation to her decade-long run as Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, she has collected Oscar nominations, critical praise, and box office clout. But even the most accomplished careers have missteps—and for Johansson, two controversial casting decisions continue to cast a shadow.

From Ghost in the Shell to Rub & Tug
In 2017, Johansson faced sharp criticism for her role in the live-action adaptation of Ghost in the Shell. Many accused the production of “whitewashing” the story’s Japanese source material by casting a white actress in the lead role. The film flopped at the box office and became a case study in Hollywood’s ongoing representation problem.

Just a year later, Johansson found herself in even deeper waters. In 2018, she was announced as the star of Rub & Tug, a biopic about Dante “Tex” Gill, a transgender man who ran massage parlors and a prostitution ring in Pittsburgh during the 1970s and ’80s. The backlash was immediate, with critics questioning why a cisgender woman had been cast to play a transgender man.

The Fallout—and the Missteps
Rather than defusing the criticism, Johansson’s initial response—telling Bustle that detractors “can be directed to Jeffrey Tambor, Jared Leto, and Felicity Huffman’s reps for comment”—fueled the outrage. Days later, she doubled down in an interview with As If, saying: “I should be able to play any person, or any tree, or any animal, because that’s my job.”

The comments were widely seen as dismissive of the concerns of the transgender community and the broader push for authentic representation.

Eventually, Johansson withdrew from the project, issuing a statement that acknowledged the role should go to a transgender actor. “While I would have loved the opportunity to bring Dante’s story and transition to life, I understand why it should be played by a transgender person,” she said at the time.

A Change in Perspective
In a later conversation with Vanity Fair, Johansson admitted that she had “mishandled that situation” and called herself “uneducated” on the nuances of the debate. “I wasn’t aware of that conversation,” she said. “I was kind of tone-deaf to something.”

Her reflection marked a rare instance of a Hollywood A-lister publicly conceding they had gotten it wrong. Still, the Rub & Tug controversy, alongside the lingering discourse around Ghost in the Shell, remains a cautionary tale about the intersection of casting, privilege, and cultural awareness.

Where Things Stand
As of today, the Rub & Tug project has yet to be revived, this time with a transgender actor in the lead. Johansson, meanwhile, continues to balance blockbuster roles with smaller, more personal projects, but the episodes serve as reminders of how even the most seasoned stars can misjudge the cultural moment.

For Johansson, the lesson appears clear: in an industry under increasing scrutiny for how it tells stories and who gets to tell them, listening—and learning—may be as important as acting.

If you’d like, I can also create a deeper feature-style profile linking Johansson’s controversies to wider trends in Hollywood representation, which would frame her experiences within the industry’s ongoing reckoning. That would give this more cultural context and make it more editorially weighty.