How Eddie Redmayne transformed himself into a woman for his role in The Danish Girl

EXTREME weight loss, full-frontal nudity and learning to wear a corset were just some of the challenges Eddie Redmayne had to face for his latest film role as a transgender woman.

British actor Eddie Redmayne poses on the red carpet of the UK premiere of film 'The Danish Girl' in London on December 8, 2015. AFP PHOTO / BEN STANSALL

NEARLY a century before Caitlin Jenner became a household name for transitioning into a woman, Danish artist, Einar Wegener/Lili Elbe did the same thing and became one of the earliest recorded recipients of gender reassignment surgery.

Few Hollywood leading men would be equipped to play such a remarkable transformation but Eddie Redmayne, who won an Oscar and many more awards for that other evolutionary role in The Theory of Everything, stepped up immediately. The role proved yet another life-altering experience. “It made me feel how privileged you are to be born with the same gender as you are assigned to be,” Redmayne says.

As well-suited as he’d already proved himself, Redmayne’s casting was not without controversy, with some in the LGBT community complaining that the role should have been played by a transgender actor. “God, it’s such a complicated question,” says Redmayne on the subject.

Eddie Redmayne’s character undergoes one of the first-ever sex-change operations.

“I’m not sure I know the answer. There is a hugely valid argument that Lili should be being played by a trans actress and that at the core of the issue there is little opportunity for trans people and there is a huge job discrimination. In 32 states in America you can be fired for being trans and certainly in Hollywood there is an issue though it is one that is changing.” He pauses. “What’s complicated to me, from an actor’s point of view, is that I feel like everyone should be able to play everything.”

The role presented some obvious physical challenges, firstly extreme weight-loss. “I ate a little breakfast and hardly any lunch. That was about it.”

There were also scenes that required full frontal nudity. “You know, when you’re doing nudity on screen it’s exactly the same as if you were to be standing naked in front of 40 people staring at you.” he says. “People will say, ‘Oh, you actors are used to it’, but it feels really exposing.”

As for becoming a woman, Redmayne turned first for help to his then fiancee, now wife, Hannah Bagshawe. The couple recently announced she is pregnant with their first child.

Redmayne is nominated for a Golden Globe for The Danish Girl.

“I talked to Hannah and her mum about femininity. I observed. I also talked to a lot of trans women about their process. One friend compared it to what a teenager girl would go through in adolescence. It’s like a hyper-feminisation which leads to using too much makeup, wearing the wrong clothes that you think are ultra-feminine, and walking with too much hips.”

Redmayne recalls the first time he was called upon to dress as a woman. “It was a rude awakening,” he says. “I was playing Viola in Twelfth Night and I wore a corset and realised, ‘Oh my God. I’m not going to be able to eat.’ Since then, when I’ve done period dramas with actresses and they’re complaining about their corsets, I tell them, ‘I know how it feels’.” He laughs loudly.

Having spent time with many people in the transgender community, Redmayne considers himself to have been quite well-educated on the subject. “What’s great about Caitlin and the show on the E Channel is that it explains the plight of transgender women and educates on things like terminology. You mentioned Caitlin earlier with the pronoun ‘he’, but it’s so important that ‘she’ is the pronoun. I occasionally make mistakes, but it is really upsetting to trans women and trans men. They were born a gender and it just happened to not be the one that they were assigned.”

The story isn’t only about a person finding their true self but a passionate love story between Einar/Lili and wife Gerda, played with astonishing heart by Alicia Vikander. “The core of the story is a remarkable and unique love story. We learn that love isn’t identified by gender or even sexuality necessarily, its about the soul.

Redmayne had to undergo an extreme diet to make himself look more feminine.

Eddie Redmayne as Gerda Wegener in film The Danish Girl.

Luckily for Redmayne, he is living out his own real love story. “I’ve known Hannah since I was a kid. She has seen me in all sorts of guises and has gone through the highs and lows at different points in our lives. What is lovely is that we have a shared history and she still loves me despite the ups and downs.”

Redmayne remains as charming and down-to-earth as he was the first time we met in 2008 for The Other Boleyn Girl. “My belief is that if you go up, you have got to come down at some point. I don’t know if that is something that my parents have always perhaps taught me and I suppose it’s a human thing but if you treat people badly or you appear rude, it will come back to bite you in the arse basically.

“Certainly in our profession, it’s so ephemeral. In The Theory of Everything I was definitely on a list of actors and I was quite low down in that list and it was a consequence of people saying no to it that I got that opportunity.”

Alicia Vikander and Eddie Redmayne in film The Danish Girl.

If The Theory of Everything was an intimidating role to tackle, The Danish Girl must have been every bit as difficult, if not harder. Was he scared of the challenge?

“Yes. People will think I’m only looking for parts that involve transformation but I accepted this film long before I got sent the script for Theory of Everything,” he says. “I always feel fear about a new role and I’d be lying to say that I didn’t but I wanted to do this despite the fact that the stakes felt very high,” he admits.

It’s been a whirlwind year for Redmayne, that’s for sure. How did things change for him after winning the Best Actor Academy award?

“The day after we got back to England, I was doing the dry-cleaning and the shopping at Sainsbury’s. I had no idea I was being photographed by paparazzi, and I’m at my local cafe doing that whole thing.” He laughs. “And the next day in the papers the headline was, ‘Eddie Mundane’. But that is the reality of your life. You do normal things, then you go to premieres and wear borrowed clothes and walk red carpets.”

Where does he keep his treasured Oscar?

“It’s on our little side-table,” he smiles. “We touch it to check it’s real.”