Nicole Kidman and Charlize Theron will star as Lili Elbe (Einar Wegener) and Gerda Wegener respectively in a new movie based on David Ebershoff’s novel The Danish Girl. Lili Elbe is the first documented transwoman who underwent a series of highly experimental surgeries to transition. She was born Einar Wegener in 1886 and met Gerda Gottlieb while they were students in a Copenhagen art school.

They settled in Paris in 1912 and worked as illustrators, with Einar focusing on painting landscapes while Gerda found commercial success focusing on books and fashion magazines. Lili’s body type also allowed her to pass quite easily as a woman, which she did from 1910 onwards.

When one of Gerda’s models didn’t show up one day, she asked Lili to fill in to great success. Gerda then continued to use Lili in a series of paintings as her model. Sometimes she was dressed in high fashion clothes, other times in the nude.

Beginning in 1930, after Lili’s examination by Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, she underwent an experimental series of operations in Berlin to finish her transformation to woman. She had an ovarian transplant performed in the second surgery, but after she experienced severe abdominal pain, had emergency surgery to remove them. She died in 1931 as a result of complications from that failed transplant and is buried in Dresden, Germany.

This sounds like an amazing story and hopefully the film will do this fabulous couple some justice, but why Nicole Kidman? Why not an actual transwoman? Just like a straight actor playing Harvey Milk, it’s a little odd. I mean, I know they have to make money and big names are the way to go, but isn’t this kind of belittling and demeaning? Not to mention straight actors are cashing in on the remarkable stories of queer folks. Something just doesn’t feel right to me.

What do you think?