Freckle-faced actor Eddie Redmayne portrays Danish trans pioneer Lili Elbe in newly-released film posters for The Danish Girl. Adapted from David Ebershoff’s 2000 novel of the same name, the film traces Elbe’s story from her birth as Einar Mogens Wegener in Denmark to her landmark gender reassignment surgery, the first surgery of its kind, in Berlin in 1930. Redmayne stars alongside Alicia Vikander, who plays Lili’s spouse Gerda Wegener.
Director Tom Hooper, who previously directed The King’s Speech, reportedly chose Redmayne over Nicole Kidman and Gwyneth Paltrow, and it is perhaps a sign of the times that a male actor was selected for the role at all. Happily, trans visibility is in currently the cultural foreground, from A-List spokespeople like Laverne Cox and Caitlyn Jenner, to the success of Amazon series Transparent and Andreja Pejic scoring a Make Up Forever campaign.
However, misunderstandings endure, particularly for those in the community already oppressed by other factors such as racism, as model and actress Hari Nef recently spoke out about. With an Oscar win under his belt — for Stephen Hawking biopic The Theory of Everything — Redmayne can hopefully bring the film’s optimistic slogan to a mainstream audience: “Find the courage to be yourself”.
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Photography via Twitter @jcsepjj