Entertainment

These Memes Highlight the Absurdity of ScarJo’s Comments About Playing ‘Any Person’

photo of Scarlett​ Johansson

Scarlett Johansson is in hot water again. This weekend, the actress who notoriously took on the lead role in Ghost in the Shell—a historically Japanese narrative—was interviewed in As If magazine about her ideas of “political correctness.”

“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,” Johansson told As If.

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Last year, Johansson was cast to play trans man Dante “Text” Gill, in the film Rub & Tug. The news was met with backlash, but Johansson didn’t budge from the job. And though this interview didn’t directly reference Rub & Tug, Johansson has since stepped out of this role in the aftermath.

Johansson issued a follow-up statement given to Entertainment Weekly through a representative. The statement explained Johansson’s original interview “has been edited for click bait and is widely taken out of context,” and added, “I recognize that in reality, there is a wide spread discrepancy amongst my industry that favors Caucasian, cis gendered actors and that not every actor has been given the same opportunities that I have been privileged to.” Okay!

Naturally, Twitter is having a field day with all of this, and users are running wild with memes that envision ScarJo playing all manner of trees and animals (but mostly trees). Here are some of the best ones:

https://twitter.com/starkrings/status/1150457335892066304
https://twitter.com/JillKrajewski/status/1150419830434082817
https://twitter.com/ParisJoyLaRock/status/1150200775991267334

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Follow Nicole Clark on Twitter.