Scarlett Johansson Cast As...

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About

Scarlett Johansson Cast As… refers to jokes about actress Scarlett Johansson, a white woman, being cast in roles meant for people of color. The jokes started after she was cast as Major Motoko Kusanagi in the live-action adaptation of Ghost In the Shell, and continued to follow the actress as she defended the choice, going so far as to say, "As an actor I should be allowed to play any person, or any tree, or any animal because that is my job and the requirements of my job."

Origin

On January 16th, 2015, The Guardian reported that after Scarlett Johansson was cast as Major Motoko Kusanagi^[1] in the live-action adaptation of Ghost In the Shell, tens of thousands of people signed a petition to have her removed and to give the role to an east-asian actress. Over a year later, Dreamworks released the first still image from Ghost In the Shell (shown below, left) reigniting the controversy around the casting.^[2] Twitter users like dopplehanger^[3] tweeted that Rinko Kikuchi would be more suitable for the role (shown below, right).

Spread

The controversy about Ghost In the Shell led to jokes about how Johansson would be cast as people of color in other roles. On December 31st, 2016, Twitter user @nancywyuen^[4] tweeted a Can I Copy Your Homework? joke about the controversy, gaining over 4,100 retweets and 8,000 likes (shown below, left). The jokes surged again after she was cast as a trans man in the film Rub and Tug.^[5] She eventually was dropped from the film. Twitter user @LeCinephiles,^[6] a satire page, joked that she was cast as Mahatma Gandhi in an upcoming film (shown below, right).

On July 12th, 2019, Johansson The Daily Mail^[7] reported on an upcoming interview with the actress in As If magazine, and the topic of her being cast in roles outside of her race and gender came up. Johansson stated "You know, as an actor I should be allowed to play any person, or any tree, or any animal because that is my job and the requirements of my job." This led to another surge in memes about Johansson being cast in roles outside her race and gender. User @SarahSahim^[8] joked that Johansson's best role was that of Grandmother Willow, an animated tree in Disney's Pocahontas, gaining over 700 retweets and 5,000 likes (shown below, left). User @captainwilscn^[9] posted a picture of a tree, captioned "OMG guys I met scarlett johansson !!!," gaining over 6,500 retweets and 45,000 likes (shown below, right).