Eddie Redmayne attends ‘The Danish Girl’ London Premiere

Yesterday evening (Tuesday 8th December), Eddie Redmayne and his wife Hannah Bagshaw attended the London premiere of Redmayne’s latest movie The Danish Girl at the Odeon, Leicester Square.

(Photo by Dave J Hogan/Dave J Hogan/Getty Images)

Eddie will be starring in this Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech) film based on David Ebershoff’s eponymous fictionalised account of the life of Lili Elbe (Eddie Redmayne): a transgender woman who lived in 1920’s Denmark and was one of the first people to undergo sex reassignment surgery.

Hooper also directed Les Misérables back in 2012, where he handed Redmayne a copy of the script. According to the Telegraph, both Hooper and co-star Alicia Vikander praised Eddie’s “extraordinary” performance at the premiere.

Regardless of this, Redmayne remained humble on the evening. When asked about the potential for receiving another academy award for his performance (after winning best actor for The Theory of Everything), he was more than humble.  The Telegraph reports:

He said: “Getting to play her was one of the most wonderful presents, I just thought her and Gerda’s story – I couldn’t believe I hadn’t heard it before – I thought it was one of the great love stories of the 21st century, it was the most wonderful experience getting to play her.” 

Redmayne researched the film by spending time within the transgender community and read Elbe’s diaries, which he said had revealed her battle against the “masculinity around her”. 

The actor said the role had been a “great responsibility”, but when asked if the film was an Oscar-winner he replied: “God, no, don’t do that.”

Sky news also reports on his response to the amount of violence and prejudice against the transgender community:

“There’s been a tipping point in the last year or two – trans issues have gone into the mainstream culture and mainstream discussion.

“But what I find amazing is that it’s almost a hundred years since Lili and Gerda’s story and it’s taken this long and there’s still a huge amount of progress to be made – (there’s still) a huge amount of discrimination and violence against trans people. There’s still a long way to go.”.

Be sure to see Redmayne’s performance in The Danish Girl on January 1st 2016, and watch Leaky for updates on his role as Newt Scamander in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, due for release November 18th 2016!