Actor Eddie Redmayne is on a roll, and his role in The Danish Girl might win him another Academy Award if all goes well.
Lili Elbe was one of the first identifiable recipients of gender-reassignment surgery. Elbe eventually wrote a book about the experience and David Ebershoff's 2000 novel was based on that, becoming a best-seller. The film version stars Redmayne as Elbe.
Beginning a humble career in theater and television, this English fellow slowly built characters that led to movies such as My Week with Marilyn, Les Miserables and Jupiter Ascending. Redmayne rightfully earned his first Oscar in 2014 for playing Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything. He recently completed another film, J.K. Rowling's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, about the creatures in the Harry Potter books.
Windy City Times flew to London to talk to the talented bloke in person about his The Danish Girl.
Windy City Times: First off, did you always want to be an actor?
Eddie Redmayne: I basically loved doing it as a kid. I loved doing it at school. I never believed that I could do my passion and hobby as an actual career. When I was 9 years old, there was a production of Oliver in the West End [that] Sam Mendes directed. I got a part as Urchin #46. It meant I got to leave school every day and have a moment in the London Palladium. I kind of got addicted then, basically.
WCT: You started from the bottom—now, you are here!
ER: [Laughs] It has been a long journey!
WCT: How have things changed after winning the Oscar? Are you offered lots of roles?
ER: To be honest, it has been quite a frenzy this past year. I was making The Danish Girl when the Oscars happened. After that, I have been filming Fantastic Beasts so I feel like I haven't had perspective on any of it or be able to take it in. I think February, when Fantastic Beasts is over, me and my wife can relax.
WCT: Take a vacation, Eddie! Describe Fantastic Beasts for people that don't know.
ER: It is J.K. Rowling's new film. It is in the mad Harry Potter universe.
WCT: Did director Tom Hooper approach you about The Danish Girl?
ER: We had worked first together on an HBO miniseries about Queen Elizabeth. That was 10 years ago.
We also did Les Miserables together. About halfway through—when I was wobbling on a barricade at lunchtime one day—he gave me the script and asked me what I thought about it. I read it with no former knowledge. I was deeply moved by this unique and deeply passionate love story. It felt like it was about how love transcends bodies or gender. It was about souls really.
I asked him if I could do it and he told me it had been 12 years in the making. It still wasn't greenlit at that point, so it was another three years after that before the film was made.
WCT: Did you know transgender people personally before that or [did you] do research about them for this film?
ER: When we were making Les Miz, we recorded it live. We had earpieces in and there was an accompanist playing music into our ears so that if I slowed down then she would slow down with me. She was the other character in all of the scenes and the unsung hero of the film. Her name was Jen, and she was transitioning at the time.
When I started preparing at the time I had about three years, and I met women from the trans community. I was lucky enough to meet people of different generations to hear their stories. There is no one trans story. Every single man or woman that I met had their own experience to tell. Across the board, everyone was so generous in sharing their experiences. It was a great education for me.
WCT: What records are there about Lili in particular to study such as mannerisms?
ER: There are only photographs and, of course, paintings of Lili. There is a book called Man into Woman, which was published after Lili's death. It was from her writings.
WCT: This was the journal in the film.
ER: Exactly. People questioned if the names were changed and if it was edited by someone else. People don't know how reliable a source it is. The paintings were an interesting place to start and juxtaposing it with the photographs allowed us to see the heightened elements of Lili. Early on, I realized I looked nothing like Lili.
The novelist David Ebershoff wrote his version of Lili's story, which was fictionalized, and various elements were changed. The script was then based on that. There was a certain sense of it being an interpretation of that story. For example, there is evidence that Lili had five operations but in our film she had two. The period of time of the transition was much longer in reality.
WCT: What was the most challenging scene for you?
ER: The middle part of the film where Lili was beginning to find herself but was being restricted by circumstance surrounding her, and violent discrimination. All of these doctors were pathologizing what she was going through. She had no predecessor or vocabulary with which to express what she was going through. That period in her life must have been incredibly complicated. It was an intense part to shoot.
WCT: What reaction do you hope for [regarding] The Danish Girl?
ER: I hope people have the same reaction that I had when I read the script, which is a beautiful love story but also a story about authenticity and what that takes. People in life often just say to "be yourself." It should be a human right to be yourself. What Lili and many trans people have to go through in order to be themselves involves so much and such courage.
In the past year or two there has been such an acceleration of the conversation has come into the mainstream as the world, myself included become more educated on trans issues. I hope this film will continue that conversation.
WCT: You must have learned so much.
ER: So much, in preparing I got to meet some incredible people. When you make a film part of it is making it but the other part is your own human takeaway, what you learn and how things change you.
WCT: You have played females in the past?
ER: My first play when I was at university was playing Viola in Twelfth Night, with Mark Rylance. He was in Jerusalem on Broadway and absolutely brilliant, by the way. He is an amazing actor. He was playing Olivia.
WCT: Do you have more theater planned after being on Broadway?
ER: I don't have anything specific but that is how I got into acting was through the theater. The hope is sooner rather than later I will be back onstage.
I went to see Ben Cumberbatch in Hamlet three nights ago. It was one of the most breathtaking things in the theater that I have seen in a long time. It was really inspiring.
WCT: Where does your sense of style come from? You are on magazine covers and winning awards these days.
ER: The answer is when you attend amazing events all of these fashion houses have brilliant people to tell you that something looks good. I take it from them, mixed with my wife's opinion.
I'm also color-blind so I have to take counsel or else I end up wearing deeply clashing colors. That is why I quite often wear blue, as I am wearing today.
The Danish Girl starts its Chicago run Thursday, Dec. 10, at the AMC River East 21, 322 E. Illinois St.
A review of The Danish Girl is at the link: www.windycitymediagroup.com/lgbt/Knight-at-the-Movies-The-Danish-Girl-films-for-the-holidays/53627.html .
