The trailer for "The Danish Girl," featuring Academy Award winner Eddie Redmayne as a transgender woman, has gone viral with more than 1.7 million YouTube views since Tuesday's posting.
Redmayne, who won the best actor Oscar this year for his portrayal of scientist Stephen Hawking in "The Theory of Everything," plays transgender artist Lili Elbe in the film scheduled to hit theaters on Nov. 27.
Elbe was born Einar Wegener, a Danish painter who, with the support of his wife, fellow artist Gerda Gottlieb, started living as a woman and finally became one of the first people to undergo gender reassignment surgery in the 1930s,
according to The Daily Mail.
"We're looking at everything from a feminine perspective," Redmayne, 33, told The Daily Mail back in February. "I think it's the most sensitive role I have played. … The danger of surgery was so extreme then. It's such a brave thing that Einar did."
"The Danish Girl" director Tom Hooper, who also directed "Les Miserables" and "The King's Speech," told
Entertainment Weekly the movie has the same qualities as those Oscar winners.
"When I first read the script, I wept three times," said Hooper. "It connected to me in similar ways to 'The King's Speech,' where a man is locked in his body by a stammer and he's helped by a tender friendship. With Lili I was moved by the power of love as an agent of transformation, even when the world was against it."
The trailer has also received positive reviews by movie-watchers.
"'The Theory of Everything'" star Eddie Redmayne is wasting no time in chasing another Oscar," said Nick Romano of
Cinema Blend. "'The Danish Girl' trailer has arrived online, and its brief but lush look at the story of trans pioneer Lili Elbe will melt your heart."
Jordan Crucchiola of
Wired magazine said the movie was based on David Ebershoff's fictionalized account of Elbe's life in the book "The Danish Girl."
"If you're operating under the illusion this movie isn't going to wreck you emotionally then you're a monster," said Crucchiola. "Both the subject matter and the performers could not be more timely."
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