The Danish Girl star Alicia Vikander has called the film she won an Oscar for “extremely dated” for its portrayal of trans people.
The 2015 biographical drama loosely follows the true story of Danish painter Lili Elbe (Eddie Redmayne) as she experiences a gender awakening and goes on to become one of the first people to undergo gender reassignment surgery.
Vikander played Gerda Wegener, Elbe’s wife, a portrait artist who develops a deep love and friendship with the painter. Despite winning Best Supporting Actress for the film, she has now distanced herself from it.
“I’m the first one to say it already feels extremely dated, which I think is a good thing,” Vikander told British Vogue.
“At that time, it was a pivot in something that it made [the subject of transgender lives] at least discussed. I hope that in a way it was a bit of an eye-opener and opened the way for art to cover those themes.”
At the time of its release, the film, directed by The King’s Speech’s Tom Hooper, was criticised for not casting a trans actor to play Elbe and its portrayal of trans characters were branded inaccurate and offensive by critics.
Vikander is not the first actor to question the film, with Redmayne calling it a “mistake”.
Asked if he would take on the role again, he told the Sunday Times in 2021: “No, I wouldn’t take it on now. I made that film with the best intentions, but I think it was a mistake.”
He continued: “The bigger discussion about the frustrations around casting is because many people don’t have a chair at the table. There must be a levelling, otherwise we are going to carry on having these debates.”
Redmayne later told Penn Badgley on the Podcrushed podcast in 2024: “I have a history of parts that I’ve played, that have been problematic in some of those choices, and I’ve spent a lot of time ruminating on those things and wondering what I would do differently.
“When it came to Cabaret, I’d learned my lesson, and I didn’t take the part on without knowing exactly what I was doing.”
