Director,
star defend controversial sex change film in Toronto
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[September 15, 2016]
By Jeffrey Hodgson
TORONTO (Reuters) - The
director and star of a controversial film about a hitman
who is put through gender reassignment surgery by a
relative of one of his victims defended the project as
it had its world premiere at the Toronto International
Film Festival on Wednesday.
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"(re)Assignment" stars Michelle Rodriguez as an assassin
named Frank Kitchen. After killing the brother of a brilliant
but deranged surgeon, Kitchen is captured and awakes to find
himself unwillingly turned into a woman.
The premise drew criticism from some in the transgender
community, who said the medical procedure should not be used as
a sensationalistic plot device. It was also called transphobic
and exploitative by Twitter users.
The film's challenges have not stopped there. Some early reviews
have been very negative, with the Guardian newspaper calling it
"a strong contender for 2016’s worst movie".
Director Walter Hill, who made action classics "48 Hours" and
"The Warriors", noted at the premiere that other filmmakers had
dealt with "altering biological organs".
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"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," he
said in a red carpet interview.
"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."
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Rodriguez, who starred in the "Fast and the Furious" series, took
issue with criticism, asking: "Are they mad that somebody decided to
take their branded transgender operation and use it on heterosexual
people?"
She also noted the film was a "B-movie noir genre comic book take on
something" and that she herself was part of the lesbian, gay,
bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community.
"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," she said.
Sigourney Weaver, who plays the deranged doctor, said "certainly
no-one is demeaned or denigrated", adding: "It's not a Disney movie.
It is noir."
(With additional reporting by Rollo Ross for Reuters TV; Editing by
Nick Macfie)
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