Michelle Rodriguez rejects criticism of ‘forced sex change’ film because she’s bisexual
Michelle Rodriguez has defended playing a transgender person in the film (Re)Assignment because she is bisexual.
Rodriguez stars in the upcoming crime thriller, which is also known by the title ‘Tomboy, a Revenger’s Tale’, which got its first airing at Toronto International Film Festival this week.
The film stars Rodriguez as a killer who is kidnapped and “unwillingly turned into a woman” by a surgeon.
However, its sensationalistic plot has not gone down well with the trans community, who hit out at Rodriguez and dismissed the film as exploitation.
But speaking to Reuters, she said: “What is transgender? Is it a psychological thing or is it an operation, and does the LGBTQ community own the operation? Do they have a branding right over a sex change?
“Are they mad that somebody decided to take their branded transgender operation and use it on heterosexual people?
“It’s a B-movie noir genre comic book take on something.
“I’m bisexual. I do guys. I do girls. You can’t really argue with me because I’m you.
“So if I do a movie, I’d never do a movie with the intention of offending anybody in the LGBT community because I’m a part of it.”
Director Walter Hill insisted other films have dealt with similar plots in the past.
He said: “I don’t know why this one stirred up such interest in a way that those didn’t except that I think the transgender situation has been more in the headlines the last couple of years.
“I don’t know. I’m a storyteller, it’s a crime story, it’s a noir vision, it’s comic book in a way and quite a few women have said to me that after seeing the movie, they feel empowered by it.”
