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 Yet when the movie about a pioneering 1920s transgender woman
arrives in U.S. movie theaters this week, it catches a shift in
the cultural zeitgeist that is expected to help take the film
and its stars all the way to the Oscars.
"I saw it as a small passion project. A labor of love," said
Hooper, whose "The King's Speech" won best picture, director and
actor Oscars in 2011. "So I am very happy that it's coming out
now."
"The Danish Girl" - to be released worldwide in the coming
months - tells the story of Danish artist Einar Wegener, who
after marriage transitioned to a woman named Lili Elbe and in
1930 became the first person known to have undergone gender
reassignment surgery. It also depicts the unusual love story
between Lili and the woman who remained by her side, her wife,
artist Gerda Wegener.
Hooper said that when the script came to him in 2008, it had
been passed around for about 12 years, struggling to secure
finance because of what was seen as the story's limited appeal.
Its release now caps a year when transgender issues have gone
mainstream, fueled by the success of award-winning TV series
like "Transparent" and "Orange Is The New Black," and the
transition of Caitlyn Jenner, the former U.S. Olympic athlete.
The White House hired its first openly transgender staff member,
the Pentagon launched a study aimed at ending the ban on trans
people in the military, and U.S. female colleges have begun
accepting transgender women students.
Yet "The Danish Girl" also arrives amid heated debate within the
transgender community over how the issue is portrayed in the
media, and over the casting of straight men and women in
transgender roles.
Getting the tone right was important for the filmmakers, who
spent months on research and outreach in a bid to represent the
community in an authentic way.
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Britain's Eddie Redmayne, who is seen as a strong contender for what
would be a second Oscar for his nuanced performance as Lili, spent
three years meeting trans women, reading Elbe's diaries and
educating himself about transgender issues.
"The generosity of these women in sharing their souls and their
stories was totally overwhelming," he said.
He also looked for feminine qualities within himself - some of them
perhaps nurtured years ago.
"I went to an all boys' school and when I was a kid I played a lot
of women in school plays. In Britain there is a tradition of men
playing women but what was interesting for this movie was meeting
trans women and hearing what their experience was," he said.
Redmayne's involvement did not end when filming stopped. He has
taught an acting class for transgender people, and, with Hooper, has
met with people of influence, like American trans actress Laverne
Cox.
So far, the reception has been mostly warm, the filmmakers say.
As for Redmayne, "I don't know if I succeeded but what I learned in
that process is quite incredible," he said.
(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by Andrew Bolton and Alan
Crosby)
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