The Danish Girl (2015)
Where to Watch
- Many of the practical effects used in the climax were achieved without any CGI.
- The original script for The Danish Girl was written over a decade before production finally began in 2015.
- During the filming of The Danish Girl, Eddie Redmayne improvised one of the most famous lines in the movie.
The Danish Girl is a 2015 British biographical drama directed by Tom Hooper, inspired by the true story of Lili Elbe, one of the first known recipients of sex reassignment surgery. Eddie Redmayne stars as Einar Wegener, a Danish landscape painter in 1920s Copenhagen who discovers her gender identity as Lili after posing in women's clothing as a favor to her wife Gerda, a portrait artist played by Alicia Vikander. As Lili's emergence becomes more than playful experimentation and Einar begins living openly as a woman, their marriage is transformed and Lili's pursuit of surgical transition in 1930s Germany becomes a matter of life and death.
Alicia Vikander won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Gerda, whose love for her spouse transcended the boundaries of gender identity in an era with no framework for understanding transgender experience. Eddie Redmayne's delicate, physically precise performance was praised for its sensitivity though also debated in the context of cisgender actors playing transgender characters. The Danish Girl earned $64 million worldwide on a $15 million budget.
