Why British star, Eddie Redmayne, now considers his Academy Award-nominated film role 'a mistake'

Award-winning actor Eddie Redmayne says he would turn down the role of 1920s transgender Danish artist Einar Wegener if offered it today. Photo / Getty Images

Eddie Redmayne was nominated for an Academy Award for his role in The Danish Girl in 2015 but the British actor now reveals that he now regrets taking on the role.

In the film Redmayne played 1920s Danish artist Einar Wegener, the first patient to undergo gender reassignment surgery. At the time of the film's release, Redmayne's casting as a transgender woman upset many in the LGTBQ community, who felt that the role should have been played by a trans actor.

Redmayne, who won an Academy Award for his transformative role as Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything, defended his casting at the time, but admitted it was a complex issue.

Redmayne told news.com.au: "I'm not sure I know the answer. There is a hugely valid argument that Lili should be being played by a trans actress and that at the core of the issue there is little opportunity for trans people and there is a huge job discrimination. In 32 states in America you can be fired for being trans and certainly in Hollywood there is an issue though it is one that is changing." He pauses. "What's complicated to me, from an actor's point of view, is that I feel like everyone should be able to play everything."

Alicia Vikander and Eddie Redmayne in The Danish Girl. Photo / Supplied

Redmayne also discussed the role and the complexities of playing a transgender character to the NZ Herald at the time of the film's release in NZ in early 2016.

"I almost don't think of gender in a binary way, like male and female," Redmayne told the NZ Herald, "For me it feels like there is a spectrum in which people sit in different places and that should be celebrated. It was a privilege getting to play Lili and of course one investigates oneself and you find parts of yourself that perhaps you haven't accessed before."

When asked if he would make the same decision to play the role now, the 39-year-old British actor told The Sunday Times, "No, I wouldn't take it on now. I made that film with the best intentions, but I think it was a mistake."

"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," he explained.