>> First picture of Oscar-winner Redmayne in latest role as transgender pioneer
Bluffant sous les traits de Stephen Hawking dans « Une merveilleuse histoire du temps » et récompensé par l’Oscar du meilleur acteur, le jeune britannique incarne dans son prochain film l’artiste danois, Einar Wegener, « Lili Elbe » : la première transsexuelle à avoir subi une opération pour changer de sexe dans les années 1930.
L’interprète a confié au Daily Mail avoir une nouvelle fois collaboré avec la chorégraphe Alexandra Reynolds pour définir les mouvements de Lili :
« Nous devions faire attention à tous les détails féminins. C’est une histoire d’amour authentique et liée à l’identité »
« C’est le rôle le plus sensible que j’ai pu jouer jusqu’à présent. Les dangers de la chirurgie étaient très élevés à l’époque. C’était très courageux de la part d’Einar ».
Après cinq opérations, Lili Elbe est décédé en 1931, des suites d’un rejet de greffe d’utérus. Le tournage de The Danish Girl, réalisé par Tom Hooper (Le Discours d’un roi, Les Misérables), vient de débuter avec Amber Heard, Matthias Schoenaerts et Ben Whishaw au casting.
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>> He has just won an Oscar for his moving portrayal of one of the world’s most famous men. But this is the first photograph of Eddie Redmayne in his latest role … as a woman.
Or, to be exact, a man who became a woman. For he plays transgender pioneer Einar Wegener – later known as Lili Elbe – in The Danish Girl.
The movie, set in the 1920s, is a love story about how Wegener, a painter, was persuaded by his wife Gerda Waud (played by Alicia Vikander) – who was also an artist – to pose for her in women’s clothes after one of her models failed to show. In time, he became Lili and started on the transformation into a woman.
It could hardly be a bigger contrast to Redmayne’s Oscar-winning role as Professor Stephen Hawking in The Theory Of Everything.
Redmayne told the Mail that he has been ‘observing the minutiae of feminine physicality’, and to play Lili he worked with movement director Alexandra Reynolds, who also helped him choreograph his movements as Hawking.
Redmayne said he started working with Reynolds early in January, when she flew out to LA to help him begin to create his portrait of Lili.
‘We’re looking at everything from a feminine perspective,’ he explained. Eddie called the true story of Wegener and his wife Gerda a study of ‘authenticity, identity and love’. ‘I think it’s the most sensitive role I have played,’ the 33-year-old actor added.
He said he had spoken with members of the trans community, to research his role – though, of course, the sexual orientation was in its infancy in the 1920s, and there was little notion of surgery.
‘The danger of surgery was so extreme then,’ Eddie said. ‘It’s such a brave thing that Einar did.’
avec Alexis Ferenczi
