LGBT group blasts Michelle Rodriguez ‘sensationalistic gender reassignment thriller’
GLAAD has criticised a new Hollywood thriller about a hitman forced to undergo gender reassignment surgery.
‘Tomboy – A Revenger’s Tale’ will star openly bisexual actress Michelle Rodriguez as a male assassin who falls into the clutches of a rogue surgeon named The Doctor.
The surgeon – played by Sigourney Weaver – then transforms the character into a woman against his will.
The film then focuses on the assassin’s quest to seek out his tormentor and take revenge.
A spokesperson for GLAAD said producers had picked an inappropriate storyline for their project.
“We haven’t read the script, but it’s disappointing to see film-makers turning what is a life-saving medical procedure for transgender people into a sensationalistic plot device,” Nick Adams, told The Hollywood Reporter.
“We are at a crucial moment in the public’s understanding of transgender issues, and stories like these have the potential to undermine the progress we’ve worked so hard to achieve.”
The LGBT rights group say the film’s announcement comes at a time when Hollywood is under increasing pressure to clean up its negative portrayals of LGBT people.
According to the organisation, just 20 of more than 100 major studio releases in 2014 featured LGBT characters, and those that were included received little screen time.
GLAAD’s third annual Studio Responsibility Index (SRI) found that of the 20 films deemed inclusive of LGBT characters, ten of those contained less than five minutes of screen time for their LGBT characters – with several being less than 30 seconds.
GLAAD President Sarah Kate Ellis warned that the film industry was in danger of being left behind – by failing to mirror the progress made by ground-breaking TV shows such as Transparent and Orange is the New Black.
She said: “As television and streaming services continue to produce a remarkable breadth of diverse LGBT representations, we still struggle to find depictions anywhere near as authentic or meaningful in mainstream Hollywood film.”
Last year, Rodriguez addressed rumours about her sexuality to say that she had “gone both ways”, and that she finds both men and women “intriguing”.
