Eddie Redmayne Says He 'Wouldn't Take' Trans Role in 'The Danish Girl' Now: 'It Was a Mistake'

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Eddie Redmaynehas heard the backlash to his performance in 2015’sThe Danish Girl.

In an interview withThe Sunday Times, the Academy Award winner, 39, said he “wouldn’t take it on now” after he was criticized for the biopic, in which he plays Lili Elbe, one of the first people to undergo gender confirmation surgery.

Although many argued that the movie wouldn’t have been made without Redmayne’s involvement — since he won his first Oscar forThe Theory of Everythingthe year before — the casting fueled the ongoing debate over whether cisgender actors should play transgender roles.

“The bigger discussion about the frustrations around casting is because many people don’t have a chair at the table,” he added. “There must be a levelling, otherwise we are going to carry on having these debates.”

Redmayne’s costarAlicia Vikander, who won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Elbe’s wife Gerda Wegener, recentlycommented on the controversy.

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“I totally understand the criticism that has been out there, because we need to make change and we need to make sure that trans men and women actually get a foot in and get work,” Vikander, 33, told Insider, adding that she thought Redmayne did a “a wonderful job” in his portrayal.

source: people.com