AILSA CHANG, HOST:

Actress Scarlett Johansson is taking a lot of heat for choosing to play Dante Tex Gill in an upcoming film about his life, "Rub & Tug." Gill ran massage parlors in Pittsburgh allegedly as fronts for prostitution during the 1970s and '80s. He was a transgender man. As you can imagine, this decision by Johansson to play Gill has set Twitter on fire. And it gave rise to commentaries with headlines like "Why Scarlett Johansson Playing A Trans Man Is Not Only Offensive But Unnecessary." That one, published in Slate, was written by Evan Urquhart, who joins us now. Welcome.

EVAN URQUHART: Hi. Thanks for having me.

CHANG: So when you first heard about this news, what was your reaction?

URQUHART: I feel pretty angry. I thought we'd been through this over and over again. But here we are again with a cisgender woman playing a transgender man.

CHANG: Cisgender being the term for people whose gender identity matches the sex that they were assigned at birth.

URQUHART: Yes. And as far as we know, that is how Scarlett Johansson identifies.

CHANG: Scarlett Johansson has responded to all her critics with a statement from her representative that read (reading) tell them that they can be directed to Jeffrey Tambor, Jared Leto and Felicity Huffman's reps for comment. These are all cis actors who played trans characters. Why wasn't there this amount of outcry when Jeffrey Tambor chose to play Maura in "Transparent?"

URQUHART: There absolutely was. I mean, I think in "Transparent" there was definitely some deference given to the fact that the writer had a parent who was trans herself and identified as part of the queer community. Like, I think there was some - little bit of leeway given, but there's - it certainly has been extremely controversial that Jeffrey Tambor is playing a trans woman. The Jared Leto role was definitely controversial. There has been outcry over this for years.

CHANG: So explain that a little more. Why is it deeply offensive to you when a cis actor is chosen to play a trans character? Read more via NPR