Eddie Redmayne is clearly still troubled by his portrayal of the transsexual Lili Elbe in The Danish Girl. Eight years after Redmayne’s acclaimed performance, it is the one film the actor seems nervous talking about. Now, Redmayne has distanced himself again from that role – and suggested he will no longer take parts that could go to trans actors.
‘No one wants to be limited by their gender or sexuality but, historically, these communities haven’t had a seat at the table. Until there’s a levelling, there are certain parts I wouldn’t play,’ he said in an interview with the Guardian.
This isn’t the first time Redmayne has put on sack cloth. Back in 2021, he conceded that his decision to play a trans person was a ‘mistake’. Of course, Redmayne has never expressed any trouble with taking the role of Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything, and Redmayne is no physicist. More recently, in a Netflix drama released last year, he portrayed Charlie Cullen – a serial killing nurse who murdered possibly hundreds of patients. And – guess what? – Redmayne is neither a nurse nor a killer.
An actor is there to play a part that is cast by a director and created by a writer, end of. In other contexts that is well understood. Jim Parsons, a gay man, played the iconic – and straight – Sheldon Cooper in The Big Bang Theory. Neither Parsons, the director nor the screenwriters were PhD theoretical physicists, but who cares about that? The character they created brought physics to life – and that’s what mattered.
However, when it comes to trans characters, different rules apply – at least in Redmayne’s mind. It seems that trans people are seen as some sort of priestly class who cannot be played by mere muggles. Redmayne now says he won’t take parts that should go to trans actors. Perhaps he could refer such roles to Eddie Izzard? Izzard certainly ticks the trans box, but might be too busy in ‘boy mode’ playing any male lead that comes Izzard’s way? Trans actors would hardly want to be restricted to playing trans characters, so why should the reverse not be countenanced?
This logic makes no sense and it does not help trans people. Trans people are human beings just like everyone else – and trans characters should be played by the best actor available. In The Danish Girl that meant a man – Redmayne – played the lead role. Meanwhile Hayley Cropper, Coronation Street’s resident transsexual was played by a woman: Julie Hesmondhalgh. The sex of the actor mattered far less than their skill in helping to bring a character to life.
But this seems to pass Redmayne by. ‘The thing I find most complex is truth,’ he says, but then adds, ‘The film (The Danish Girl) feels like a fictionalised version. It doesn’t feel like Lili’s story.’ Why not? Does Eddie think that trans people have some special essence that sets us apart from the rest of humanity? If so, he should be reassured: it’s not true. We may have one of possibly several psychological conditions that sometimes require medical attention, but we are otherwise just like everyone else.
One thing is for sure, if my notability – or notoriety – ever meant that my character was cast in a movie, I would not want the role to be played by someone else who happened to be trans; I’d want the best man for the job. Redmayne needs to man up and accept that.
Comments