The acclaimed story about one of the first transgender women to receive gender reassignment surgery is out now on Blu-ray.
While the Academy Awards have since come and gone there was no doubt after watching The Danish Girl that it deserved the nominations and awards that it received. Alicia Vikander’s breakout performance as Gerda Wegener, Lili Elbe’s wife, was compelling and heartfelt. Eddie Redmayne as Lili Elbe, whose real life character earned the title of the film, did justice to the role in a compassionate and thoughtful way. It’s never easy for a cisgender actor to take on a role such as this without being subject to criticism. Despite the breakthroughs we have seen from the likes of Laverne Cox and others in recent years, it goes without question that there are plenty of terrific transgender actors whose talents have yet to be fully embraced and placed in the spotlight. I think that will continue to change. There have been films in the past in which transgender people were featured where criticism was deserved; this film is not one of them. Eddie Redmayne did a masterful job and did justice to Lili Elbe, one of the first modern day trans pioneers.
He openly admitted that he was a bit ignorant on transgender issues and terminology prior to making this film, says:
“I fell into all the clichés of ignorance. I didn’t realize that gender and sexuality weren’t related. I confused the terms transvestitism and transgender. But what’s lovely is, the second you understand the difference, you see how gigantic it is and how important it is that we educate ourselves.”
He did his homework. He did it with care, by getting insights and tutoring from several different trans people including Lana Wachowski, who directed Jupiter Ascending, a film that Redmayne did right before The Danish Girl.
As with many scripts, it often takes years for a film to get enough traction to actually be produced and distributed to a wide audience. There were many notable actors who signed onto The Danish Girl until they didn’t. Nicole Kidman was one of the first to sign on. She was supposed to produce and play the role of Lili pre- and post-transition. CharlizeTheron, Gwyneth Paltrow and Rachel Weisz all were onboard at some point to play the role of Gerda. The film was picked up and dropped by different directors as well. Needless to say, the project went through a tumultuous 6 to 7 years before it finally got the green light. The Danish Girl’s release in 2015 felt like the right time given the warming climate in our culture and the public’s desire for more compelling transgender stories to be told. And on that level, it didn’t disappoint.
The Danish Girl from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment is now available on Digital HD and in DVD/Blu-ray.