Eddie Redmayne: Playing a trans woman made me look at my own gender identity
Eddie Redmayne has responded to a reporter who asked if he questioned his own gender identity, after playing a trans woman in a film.
The Oscar-winning actor plays 1920s trans pioneer Lili Elbe in upcoming film The Danish Girl, directed by Tom Hooper.
Speaking to the BBC about his role in the film, the actor revealed it had made him think about gender in a different way.
Asked whether he had questioned his own gender, Redmayne said: “It absolutely make me look at the notion of my own gender.
“The thing that I have learned is that this notion of gender being binary – about being two things. In this day and age, that feels incredibly antiquated.
“What I have learned I think is that gender is a spectrum, and that where one falls on that is entirely unique to who you are.”
However, Redmayne shut down reporter Will Gompertz, when asked where he falls on the spectrum himself.
The actor responded: “I think that’s my own – I’m not going to tell you that! I’m going to keep that to myself.”
Director Tom Hooper added that he had been working on the story for some time – but could not get it made until recently.
He said: “When I fell in love with it, it was considered a hard film to finance. I can only imagine the prejudice against trans stories filters its way into financial decisions making.
“When people now say it’s a timely subject, I smile inwardly, because it wasn’t considered a timley subject [when I started] seven years ago!”
