Keith Girard
Scarlett Johansson has been tapped to play a man in the upcoming movie ‘Rub & Tug.’ (Photo: Getty)
Scarlett Johansson, one of Hollywood’s leading sex sirens, is about to undergo an on-screen transformation that will shock her fans. She’s set to play a woman who masquerades as a man to run a string of mobbed-up massage parlors in the upcoming film “Rub & Tug.”
It won’t be the first time an actress plays a man in a movie. But it should be interesting, nonetheless, because Johansson has always been associated with sexy roles.
Lois Jean Gill, aka Dante ‘Tex’ Gill, was a notorious massage parlor operator in Pittsburgh during the ’70s and ’80s. (Photo: Post-Gazette)
Actresses Who’ve Played Men
- Hilary Swank As Brandon Teena In “Boys Don’t Cry”
- Cate Blanchett As Bob Dylan In “I’m Not There”
- Amanda Bynes As Sebastian Hastings In “She’s The Man”
- Katharine Hepburn In “Sylvia Scarlett”
- Angelina Jolie In “Salt”
- Gwyneth Paltrow In “Shakespeare In Love”
- Barbra Streisand In “Yentl”
Source: BuzzFeed
New Regency, best known for its involvement with such movies as “12 Years a Slave,” “Birdman” and “The Revenant,” has picked up the project, according to deadline.com
Johansson will be paired in the film with her “Ghost in the Shell” director Rupert Sanders, infamous for his sexual affair with Kristen Stewart during production of “Snow White and the Huntsman.” He directed, and she starred in the film.
Jennifer Lawrence, Paul Greengrass and David O. Russell were all mentioned in connection with the film at various times, before Johansson landed the role, according to Variety.
“Rub & Tug” will be based on the true-life story of Dante “Tex” Gill, a small-time mobster in Pittsburgh during the late ’70s and early ’80s.
Gill, real name, Lois Jean Gill never tried to hide her sexual identity, but preferred to be known as a man.
Her obituary (she died in 2003) and various news articles over the years often described her as “the woman who prefers to be known as a man,” according to the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.
Oddly, she was “short and dumpy,” which raises a question whether Johansson will attempt to match her body style.
Gill wore men’s suits and short hair, talked tough and may even have undergone the initial stages of a sex change that made her appear masculine, reports say.
She was involved in a long-term relationship with another woman, Cynthia Bruno that eventually ended.
“Jean’s fiery romance with her girlfriend Cynthia truly defines her and forms the emotional core of the story,” according to a synopsis.
Gill ran mafia-protected parlors that were used for prostitution in the city’s massage parlor district along Liberty Avenue.
In 1984, she was convicted in U.S. District Court on tax evasion charges and spent seven years in a federal prison. Despite her mafia connections, she died a non-violent death at 72 from kidney failure.
“She was just a hell of a lot of fun,” a former friend and lawyer, Carl Max Janavitz, told the newspaper.
“She was just laughing at the world. And naturally, the authorities don’t like that. She was a very good businesswoman, but she just had a different lifestyle,” he said.
Filming is due to begin in February 2019.