Scarlett Johansson says that she should be able to play "no matter who, to any tree or to any animal".

Scarlett Johansson, who had to face negative reactions for playing an Asian character in the Paramount live film. Ghost in the shell remake, then faces so much reaction after being portrayed as a trans character in Tex Gill's next biop movie Scrub that & # 39; it he's removed from the role, has other ideas about the kind of roles that people should entrust him with. In an interview with As If magazine, the actress's complaint of political correctness in the art, and was told convinced: "As an actor, I should be able to play anyone, any tree or any animal because that is my job and the demands of my job. "

Johansson's comments were picked up by the Daily Mail and have already provoked enough heckling that the actress issued a statement saying that the article had been "edited for a click bait and widely out of context." ". It lacks a context: the interview is not a standard profile. As if paired Johansson with the contemporary painter David Hall, As If collaborated in a photo shoot of the actress starring her work; Johansson and Salle then spoke about the project. Part of the context that Johansson probably refers to is the filming itself, in which Salle asked Johansson to "play with the idea of ​​living in a tree," according to photographer Tatijana Shoan, which is why The idea of ​​being molded like a tree was easily at hand. But unless the interview was irreversibly mixed, his statement seems a little misleading. Johansson writes that "the question I was answering in my conversation with the contemporary artist, David Salle, was about the confrontation between the politically correct and the art," as if Salle had broached the subject. But, as published, this part of the interview shows that Salle tries to make Johanson talk about the mechanics of his art, while directing the conversation in the good sense of the casting. Johansson had been questioned about his role models and had talked about the 1950's Method actors, describing them as follows:

With actors such as James Dean, Natalie Wood and Marlon Brando, they presented a kind of release, a kind of showcase of emotions shamelessly. You see it even in the writing of the time with authors such as Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller. They would write these wonderfully dirty, complicated and ugly scenes for actors and audiences. It was a period of real guts.

"It was a time of courage" seems to be the moment when the wheels jumped off the track. Here is the complete exchange on the casting that followed, giving the impression that Johansson led the conversation:

Do you think this mode or this generation is still important today?

You know, playing goes through the trends.

Are we seeing an actor trend today?

Hmm … We live in a time so strange and without identity in many ways. I do not know if there is a trend in performance, but there is definitely a trend in casting right now. Today, we put a lot of importance and conversation on what the acting game is and on whom we want to see ourselves represent ourselves on the screen. The question now is, what's going on anyway?

Right. Who plays what roles …

You know, as an actor, I should have the right to play anybody, no matter what tree or any animal, because that's my job and the demands of my job.

Yes. Do you just represent yourself, your gender, your ethnicity, or can you actually play beyond these categories?

There are many social lines that are drawn now, and a lot of political correctness is reflected in the art.

Does it bother you? Are you bored? You do not mind? Encourage you? I know it's complicated, there is probably not a single answer.

You know, I feel that it's a trend in my business that has to happen for a variety of social reasons. However, sometimes it gets in the way of art, because I feel that art should be free of restrictions. What do you think, David? You literally create art all the time.

"Without identity", incidentally, this is how Johansson described his character in Ghost in the shell. Read the interview in its entirety, but if the context is missing, it's not easy. Johansson clarified the point she was trying to say in her statement:

Personally, I feel that in an ideal world, any actor should be able to play anybody and that Art, in all its forms, should be immune to the politically correct. That was what I meant, even though it was not. I recognize that in fact, there is a generalized divergence within my sector that favors Caucasian and Cis actors, and that not all actors have been offered the same opportunities as those I have. have been privileged. I continue to support and always promote diversity in all sectors and will continue to fight for projects where everyone is included.

The result is that we anticipate another round of unconvincing defenses of problematic distribution, although in this case, the fact that Johansson does not play a tree or a person of different sex or ethnicity in a future film should not make forget relatively short cycle. That's good, because when the next Johansson film, Jojo Rabbit, will be released in October, we will want to have a slightly different conversation about the cast. Here is her co-star, screenwriter and director, Taika Waititi, who discusses her role in the film, an adaptation of Christine Leunens' novel. Cage sky, and his general theory of casting, which is not as color-blind as that of Johansson:

It turns out that the race-insensitive cast can be used for both good and evil, as long as you are trying to be disrespectful.