[News/Film] [USA] Eddie Redmayne: Reading 'Danish Girl' Script Was Like Getting 'Sucker-Punched'

[Stephanie Stevens]

NPR, DC, USA


Eddie Redmayne: Reading 'Danish Girl' Script Was Like Getting 'Sucker-Punched'

Updated December 24, 2015 6:49 PM ET | Published December 24, 2015 4:16 PM ET

NPR Staff


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Actor Eddie Redmayne won an Oscar last year for playing Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything. Now he's been nominated for a Golden Globe for his role in another biopic, The Danish Girl. The film tells the story of transgender woman Lili Elbe, one of the first people known to have had gender reassignment surgery.

Lili begins the film as Einer Wegener, a Danish painter whose artist wife, Gerda, one day asks him to fill in as a model for a portrait she's working on. The subject is a dancer, so to help his wife, Einer dresses the part — and so the film's story is set into motion.

Redmayne tells NPR's Ari Shapiro what drew him to the role of Lili and what he learned from talking to trans women while preparing for the role.

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Interview Highlights

On the love between Gerda and Lili and how that drew him to the role

I was given this script actually when I was making Les Misérables with Tom Hooper, the director, and I read this story and I was just completely sucker-punched by it. I found it the most profound love story about these two formidable women, and it was a story of courage and authenticity. And I kind of came running out of the trailer and I said to Tom, I was like, "I'd love to do it. Can we do it?" And that was about four years ago and finally the film is coming to light now. ...

One of the things that sung to me in the script was that this was a story about love not being defined by gender, not being defined by bodies, but really being about souls. And one of the trans women I met said that she would give her everything and anything to live a life authentic. That was her mantra, in some ways. But at the same point, this person that she was with, who she was deeply in love with, she constantly questioned how deep her partner's pool of empathy was. And so that notion of the space that Gerda allows, through her love, for Lili to become who she is, that was something we discussed a lot.

On what he learned from talking to trans women while researching the film

One of the interesting things for me was trying to relate moments in the script to contemporary experience. And there's one moment in the film when Lili and Gerda go to the ball. Lili is going out [for] the first time, and she meets a man and it's a complicated scene. One of the trans women I met over here in Los Angeles described how, before she'd come out, her favorite night of the year was Halloween. And she went to this bar dressed as a woman and this man came over to her and started sort of talking to her and sort of hitting on her. And she described this extraordinary mixture of adrenaline pumping through her veins and excitement at being accepted for who she was, mixed with this utter fear that this man may not know who she is. And that mixture of excitement and thrill with the constant fear was something that I tried to take into that scene when we shot it.

On the scenes that show Lili perfecting her gestures and observing how women move

That idea of observation — and early on in transition particularly — was important because blending, for some trans women, is important early on. And it seems that, when you read about Lili's story, she would blend almost immediately in the world. But there's one scene in the film which was always stunning to me in the script, which was when Lili is being forced to live as a man in Paris and she goes to this peep show, to this sort of sex show. And whilst in this illegal place, as it were, where men are watching and getting titillated by watching a woman strip, you see Lili actually is going there to be in an enclosed space where she is free to observe. ...

One of the things one had to keep remembering with this film is that Lili had no vocabulary, she had no context, she had no predecessors, she had no community. And so at that moment in the film, she is watching this woman, but through a glass; and she keeps capturing her own reflection and it's this aspiration to be herself and to be what this woman has, but also catching her failings in her own reflection at a time in which she had no knowledge of whether she was even capable of becoming herself.

On whether the recent shift in transgender awareness (Laverne Cox on the cover of Time, the Amazon show Transparent) will affect how audiences respond to the film

I hope so, because the education that I had in the three or four years of preparing I feel like is now entering the mainstream media and the world is being educated. And what is astounding is some of the, you know, the discrimination or the violence that Lili lived through is still so rife across the world. I mean particularly [in] job discrimination — you can be fired in 32 states for being trans. ... When you, as an actor, meet people and people share their experience, one also feels a sense of responsibility. And certainly I've been trying to learn to be an ally to the community in any way that I can.

Transcript

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: The actor Eddie Redmayne won an Oscar last year for playing a real-life character Stephen Hawking in the movie "The Theory Of Everything." Now he's been nominated for a Golden Globe for his role in another biopic, Lili Elbe in the movie "The Danish Girl."

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE DANISH GIRL")

EDDIE REDMAYNE, BYLINE: (As Lili Elbe) God made me a woman. The doctor's - he - the doctor is curing me of the sickness that was my disguise.

SHAPIRO: Elbe was a transgender woman, one of the first people known to have had gender reassignment surgery. At the start of the film, Lili is male, a painter married to another painter, a woman named Gerda.

Eddie Redmayne told me he first read the script while he was filming "Les Miserables," which was by the same director, Tom Hooper.

REDMAYNE: And I kind of came running out of the trailer. And I said to Tom - I was, like, I'd love to do it. Can we do it? And that was about four years ago, and finally, the film is coming to light now.

SHAPIRO: Over those four years, Eddie Redmayne spoke with many trans women, including the filmmaker Lana Wachowski, who directed him in a previous movie.

Tell me more about what you learned from the trans women you spoke to in preparing for this film.

REDMAYNE: Well, I - one of the interesting things for me was trying to relate moments in the script to contemporary experience. And there's one moment in the film when Lili and Gerda go to the ball. Lili is going out - it's the first time. And she meets a man, and it's a complicated scene.

And one of the trans women I met over here in Los Angeles described how, before she'd come out, her favorite night of the year was Halloween. And she went to this bar dressed as a woman, and this man came over to her and started sort of talking to her and sort of hitting on her. And she described this extraordinary mixture of adrenaline pumping through her veins and excitement at being accepted for who she was mixed with this utter fear that this man may not know who she is. And that mixture of excitement and thrill with the constant fear was something that I tried to take into that scene when we shot it.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE DANISH GIRL")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character) I feel I'd need to ask your permission before I kissed you.

REDMAYNE: (As Lili Elbe) I should go find Gerda.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character) Why don't you tell her I'll walk you home?

REDMAYNE: (As Lili Elbe) Oh, she wouldn't like that.

SHAPIRO: There are scenes where you, as Lili, are studying the hand gestures of women and trying to imitate them. And there are these very sort of slow scenes with very little dialogue, where you're just placing your hand or your foot just so.

Talk about how you - how you played those scenes, how you performed them.

REDMAYNE: Well, for me, it was about observation. And, of course, that idea of observation - and early on in transition, particularly, was important because blending, for some trans women, is important early on.

And it seems that, when you read about Lili's story, is she would blend almost immediately in the world. But there's one scene in the film which was always stunning to me in the script, which was when Lili is being forced to live as a man in Paris and she goes to this peep show, to this sort of sex show.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE DANISH GIRL")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character, speaking French).

REDMAYNE: And whilst in this illegal place, as it were, where men are watching and getting titillated by watching a woman strip, you see Lili actually is going there to be in an enclosed space where she is free to observe.

SHAPIRO: What struck me about that scene was you have all of these men staring at this woman in the center, and all of them want to have her except for Lili, who wants to be her.

REDMAYNE: Yeah.

SHAPIRO: And it's desire all around, but this is one different kind of desire.

REDMAYNE: Absolutely. And it's also - one of the things one had to keep remembering with this film is that Lili had no vocabulary. She had no context. She had no predecessors. She had no community. And so, at that moment in the film, she is watching this woman, but through a glass, and she keeps capturing her own reflection. And it's this aspiration to be herself and to be what this woman has, but also catching her failings in her own reflection at a time in which she had no knowledge of whether she was even capable of becoming herself.

SHAPIRO: That's one thing that makes this story so different from the contemporary trans experience, is that Lili was born, seemingly, in a vacuum. How does that change the story - that there isn't the guide? There isn't the trans mother. There isn't the person to hold your hand and help you down the path.

REDMAYNE: Well, I mean, what was interesting for me was when I met with trans women of different generations and heard their stories is - and you then go and read "Man Into Woman," which is the book that Lili, in theory, wrote - is that some of the vocabulary that she uses is almost, nowadays, would be considered wrong.

She talks about having two people fighting for one body. And nowadays, that notion would sort of pathologize, in some way, what she was going through. But she had no vocabulary. She had no, I suppose, context to place what she was feeling. And it was always important, however - when I met trans women, I would ask - take the specific scenes and scenarios of the film, which takes place in the 1920s and ask if they have - or have experienced contemporary equivalents. And what was amazing was there were resounding similarities, but you always had to take that and then place it in the context of no predecessor.

SHAPIRO: Really, just in the last year or two, trans awareness in America has exploded, whether it's Laverne Cox on the cover of Time magazine, Jeffrey Tambour winning awards for his performance in "Transparent" and on and on and on.

Do you think the world reacts differently to this film because of the awareness that has grown so much recently?

REDMAYNE: I'm sure. I mean, I hope so because the education that I had in the three or four years of preparing, I feel like is now entering the mainstream media. And the world is being educated. And what is astounding is some of the, you know, the discrimination or the violence that Lili lived through is still so rife across the world, I mean, particularly, sort of job - you can be fired in 32 states for being trans. I mean, it's so...

SHAPIRO: You have that number at your fingertips.

REDMAYNE: Well, it's important to me. (Unintelligible) in some ways. It is because one feels - when you are - when you, as an actor, meet people and people share their experience, one also feels a sense of responsibility. And certainly, I've been trying to learn to be an ally to the community in any way that I can.

SHAPIRO: This may be a crude comparison, but do you think that 10 years from now, we will view cisgender men - that is, men who are not trans themselves - playing transgender roles in the way that, for example, we now view white actors in blackface playing Othello? Or do you think it will be like gay actors playing straight roles and vice versa, where everyone can play everything they're suited to play, and, you know, there are no walls and barriers?

REDMAYNE: I hope it's the latter because of all of the trans -and I did - there was a workshop in London recently at a place called the Central School of Speech and Drama for young trans actors and actresses. And I know that all those people there that I met don't want to be confined to playing trans characters. So I would hope that it's the latter.

SHAPIRO: Eddie Redmayne plays the character Lili Elbe in the new film "The Danish Girl." Wonderful talking with you - thanks for joining us.

REDMAYNE: Thanks for having me.


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