LOS ANGELES, Sept. 1, 2015 — (UPI) — Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander star in the first The Danish Girl trailer.
The 33-year-old English actor portrays real-life transgender artist Lili Elbe, born Einar Wegener in Denmark in 1882, with Vikander as Elbe’s wife, Gerda Gottlieb Wegener. Ben Whishaw, Sebastian Koch, Amber Heard and Matthias Schoenaerts also have roles.
The preview sees Lili discover her identity as a transgender woman and become the first person to undergo male-to-female sex reassignment surgery. Gerda struggles to accept the change at first, but becomes her spouse’s staunch supporter.
“Eddie was really the person I wanted to make the film with, and I was very passionate about that,” director Tom Hooper told Screen Daily. “I was a great believer in him as an actor. I think also there’s a certain gender fluidity that I sensed in him, that I found intriguing.”
Redmayne and Hooper previously collaborated on the director’s 2012 adaptation of the Victor Hugo novel Les Miserables. The Danish Girl is based on the David Ebershoff book of the same name, and opens in select theaters Nov. 27.
