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PEOPLE & ARTSThursday 26 November 2015
Redmayne, Hooper reunite for transgender tale ‘Danish Girl’
JAKE COYLE It’s a moment that cues
AP Film Writer a coming transformation:
TORONTO (AP) — In a piv- Einar will gradually be-
otal scene early in Tom come a woman, finally
Hooper’s “The Danish Girl,” undergoing one of the
the 1920s Copenhagen earliest known sex reas-
painter Einar Wegener, signment surgeries. Einar
as played by Eddie Red- becomes Lili Elbe, a cel-
mayne, sits in for a por- ebrated trans pioneer.
trait his wife Gerda (Alicia “I didn’t want it to be
Vikander) is painting of a an epiphany,” says Red-
ballerina. Breathlessly ca- mayne of the scene. “It
ressing the stockings and felt like she had been born,
slippers, something stirs in and society and herself
Einar. had encased herself in this
In this Oct. 25, 2015 file photo, British director Tom Hooper, right, and British actor Eddie
Redmayne pose for a portrait in promotion for “The Danish Girl” in London. Associated Press
masculine exoskeleton. It was the first role Red- is a woman underneath.”
The important thing for me mayne was offered with- Some, though, have ques-
was the film should see out an audition. When tioned casting a man as a
that unraveling.” Redmayne and Hooper transgender woman. Sean
Redmayne, the best-actor convened for an interview Baker’s “Tangerine,” re-
Oscar winner earlier this at the Toronto Internation- leased earlier this year, by
year for his Stephen Hawk- al Film Festival, it was also contrast, has drawn raves
ing in “The Theory of Every- their first time sitting to- for its transgender actress-
thing,” has proven to be gether for an interview. At es, Kitana Kiki Rodriguez
an immaculately techni- times, their combined Brit- and Mya Taylor.
cal actor and an expert ishness made for extreme “There’s something in Ed
of metamorphosis. A year humility. that’s drawn to the femi-
after charting Hawking’s “The dream to get to play nine, maybe,” says Hoop-
physical degeneration, his interesting and in both er of Redmayne, who also
conversion from Einar to Lili those cases extraordinary played Viola in a stage
in “The Danish Girl” again people, it does not come production of “Twelfth
has the 33-year-old Brit- along,” says Redmayne of Night.” ‘’In the movie, Lili
ish actor being hailed as Hawking and Elbe. “And presents as Einar for two-
a likely Academy Award I also have no question: thirds of it and the transi-
nominee. I don’t think it will come tion is quite late, so that
It’s the third film together along again. I realize that also fed into my thinking.”
for Hooper (“The King’s I’ve been very lucky in a “The Danish Girl” is never-
Speech”) and Redmayne, couple years to play two theless an outlier. Earlier this
who had a small part in the formidable people.” year, the USC Annenberg
director’s “Elizabeth: The Reviews for “The Danish School of Communication
Golden Age” (2007) where Girl,” painterly and state- and Journalism studied the
the queen sentences him ly, have singled out Red- 100 top-grossing films of
to death. “I remember in mayne’s performance, 2014 and found zero trans-
that moment thinking: I which caps what the ac- gender characters.
need to find a leading role tor calls a “head-spinning” “There is a serious prob-
for Eddie,” Hooper says. period in his life. He wed lem not only in our industry
It was while filming 2012’s Hanna Bagshawe last De- but within many industries
“Les Miserables,” in which cember, and, two days af- of trans men and trans
Redmayne played the ter winning the Oscar, was women and discrimination
tender revolutionary Mar- back on set making “The in the workplace,” Red-
ius, that the two began Danish Girl,” still groggy mayne says. “In the United
plotting “The Danish Girl,” from the partying. States, you can be fired in
based on David Eber- “My instinct was Eddie 32 states for being trans.”
shoff’s novel of the true-life from the beginning,” “When I first thought of
events. On the film’s Paris Hooper says. “I was truly doing the movie, it was
barracks, Hooper slipped open to any route. I know considered a hard film to
Redmayne Lucinda Cox- in a previous incarnation finance,” Hooper says. “I
on’s script. there had been talk of a must admit there were
“Tom just said: Will you woman playing the role, people around me who
have a read of this?” Red- which is also equally valid were happy to tell me I
mayne says. because you’re saying Lili shouldn’t do the film.q
