Eddie Redmayne
He regrets his role in the transgender drama “The Danish Girl”
Eddie Redmayne as transgender woman Lili Elbe in “The Danish Girl”.
© Universal Pictures
Eddie Redmayne was nominated for an Oscar for the transgender drama “The Danish Girl”. Still, he describes his role as a “mistake”.
In 2015, actor Eddie Redmayne (39) slipped into the role of the Danish painter and transgender woman Lili Elbe (1882-1931) in the drama “The Danish Girl”. Redmayne, who recently won an Oscar for his performance as Stephen Hawking (1942-2018), also received an Academy Awards nomination for “The Danish Girl” for “Best Actor”. And yet to this day he struggles with having accepted the role as he now revealed in an interview with the “Sunday Times”.
He accepted the demanding role “with the best of intentions”, but has now come to the conclusion that it was “a mistake.” With his current knowledge of the way minorities are still treated in the film industry, “would [er] no longer accept “, asserts Redmayne.” The big discussion about the frustration at the casting is because many people do not have a say. It has to be rebalanced, otherwise we will have these debates forever. “
Criticism at the cinema release
When the film was released in 2015, director Tom Hooper (49) and Redmayne faced criticism. At that time, the Oscar winner was still defending his commitment. In 2020 he spoke again in the transgender debate, initiated by “Harry Potter” author Joanne K. Rowling (56). Redmayne firmly contradicted her comments, criticized as transphobic: “Trans women are women and trans men are men” – there can be no two opinions on this.