Damian Lewis biopic of cocaine-addict mayor Rob Ford hit by gender swap controversy
Homeland star Damian Lewis is an unlikely fit to play former Toronto mayor Rob Ford in Run This Town, a new film about the late politician – but it's another piece of casting that has caused a stir this week on social media.
Musical theatre star Ben Platt is set to play a journalist working to expose Ford, whose political career came to an undignified end after a video emerged in 2013 showing him smoking crack cocaine.
Robyn Doolittle, the investigative journalist who led the Toronto Star's coverage of the scandal, has criticised the decision to focus on a male reporter.
"I'm glad they're rewriting the fact that it was a female reporter who investigated Rob Ford," Doolittle wrote, sarcastically, in a tweet that has been "liked" more than 15,000 times. "Why have a woman be a lead character when a man could do it?"
I'm glad they're rewriting the fact that it was a female reporter who investigated Rob Ford. Why have a woman be a lead character when a man could do it? Ammaright? https://t.co/Nx3holhuZW
— robyndoolittle (@robyndoolittle) April 10, 2018
Platt, who is best known for playing the title role in Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen, responded to Doolittle explaining that his character was not based on her or any member of the Toronto Star's team.
"I have the utmost respect for your accomplishments," Platt wrote. "I play a totally fictionalized character, an entitled, incapable entry-level reporter (my boss is played by Jennifer Ehle) at a fictional competing newspaper. The film alludes to the successful reporting from the Toronto Star."
"To reiterate, the film is a completely fictional drama with several storylines exploring the millennial generation & their involvement in politics & journalism, the Rob Ford scandal serves as the platform. There is no attempt to portray or co-opt your story/accomplishments."
Platt later posted a further explanation, adding that – unlike the Toronto Star – his character's newspaper "ultimately fails" to report on the Rob Ford story. "It is not a Rob Ford biopic nor a retelling of the successful reporting on the Rob Ford scandal by Robyn Doolittle," he wrote. "I would never agree to be part of a film that would attribute the accomplishments of a remarkable woman to a fictional man."
— Ben Platt (@BenSPLATT) April 10, 2018
While some commentators defended Platt, others were unconvinced by his explanation. More than one suggested it was too early to make a piece of "historical fiction" about Ford, who passed away in 2016.
As a woman, I don’t feel like this is sexist or trying to take her place. It literally states that this is not a retelling of Rob Ford’s or Robyn Doolittle’s Story. It’s just using the scandal as a backdrop for the real plot of trying to find a place in politics and journalism
— Lexie Ellis (@bookworm_lexie) April 11, 2018
This story didn’t need a different slant to make it marketable. Make the movie about what actually happened and cast appropriate people in the roles. It’s not rocket science.
— Courtney Ste-Croix (@CDNwanderer88) April 10, 2018
I get that it’s historical fiction and not based on Doolittle, but women are still enormously underrepresented in journalism, and in Hollywood, and in Hollywood films about journalism.
— Maggie Parkhill (@MaggieParkhill) April 12, 2018
I feel that you need to understand that people are angry because 2 years is rather soon for "historical fiction" of events that created a lot of controversy in Toronto, the province of Ontario, and the whole of Canada.
— AJ Brundage (@Alan_AJB78) April 10, 2018
Alongside Lewis, Platt and Ehle, the film's cast also features Nina Dobrev and Mena Massoud as Ford's aides, and Scott Speedman in an as-yet unnamed role. Run This Town's Canadian writer-director Ricky Tollman has described the film as “a sympathetic portrait” with "moments of comedy".
