It seems as though we’ve only stopped gushing over Eddie Redmayne’s turn as the great Stephen Hawkings in last year’s The Theory of Everything and now, less than 12 months later, the actor has muscled his way into the Oscar conversation once again with an eye-catching turn in Tom Hooper’s starry transgender drama, The Danish Girl.
Assuming the role of Einar, Redmayne plays a brilliant and deeply curious artist who shares his affection for the medium with Gerda Wegener (Ex Machina and The Man From U.N.C.L.E.‘s Alicia Vikander). Both Einar and Gerda are madly in love, though their relationship is tested when the former reveals his desires to undergo a daring sex change at a time when both the technology and society’s acceptance of the transformation were rudimentary at best.
Taking place in the 1920s, Redmayne’s character bears the brunt of a social stigma when he becomes Lili Elbe, exchanging the arduous physical pain of the surgery for emotional fulfilment. It’s a liberating feeling that the actor displays effortlessly in today’s all-new trailer, and even the new poster (see below) is a minimalist and graceful portrait of the two leading stars. At a time when the topic of gender identity is becoming more and more prevalent, Hooper’s drama will surely draw more attention to the hard-pressing, societal issue.
Tom Hooper’s The Danish Girl opens in select theaters on November 27. For now, you can check out our own thoughts of the drama with our review from Toronto International Film Festival.
The remarkable love story inspired by the lives of artists Lili Elbe and Gerda Wegener (portrayed by Academy Award winner Eddie Redmayne [“The Theory of Everything”] and Alicia Vikander [“Ex Machina”]), directed by Academy Award winner Tom Hooper (“The King’s Speech,” “Les Misérables”). Lili and Gerda’s marriage and work evolve as they navigate Lili’s groundbreaking journey as a transgender pioneer.
