The No Time To Die actor Ben Whishaw had some opinions to share in his recent chat with The Guardian. Whishaw who is an openly gay actor was asked about his opinion on Eddie Redmayne‘s rendition of the trans pioneer Lili Elbe in the 2015 Academy Award-nominated film, The Danish Girl. Seeing as Ben had played Eddie’s lover in the movie, he had some things to say.
According to the Paddington voice actor, Redmayne put on a good performance, he shared, “I think Eddie did a beautiful job.” He adds, “And it’s done. Going forward, there will be other films in which the role is given to someone who lived that experience.” Whishaw contested that there was nothing wrong in casting Redmayne as Lili as he understood the character in and out, regardless of his gender or sexuality, he portrayed an honest facet of the character. He went on and added, “Why shouldn’t a role like that be given to someone who knows, inside, what the character is? I’m all for that.”
The London Spy actor also disclosed his feelings about a straight man taking on a gay role, “I feel the same, sometimes, about straight actors playing gay parts. I’m critical if I don’t think the performance is, from my subjective experience, accurate.” However, he added, ” I might think, ‘I don’t believe you!’ And even a small moment of hesitation or inauthenticity will block my engagement with the whole story. So I understand these questions.”
Ben then admitted, “I just feel that we can end up arguing over these black-and-white things and get extremely polarised over these questions when I don’t think it needs to be that way.” The Skyfall actor further made his point, “Have a discussion! There can be disagreement! There can be different points of view!”
Whishaw ended his answer by extending empathy and remarked that listening and forgiving is the only path to harmony, “I’m on the side of listening to each other. And I’m on the side of forgiving each other. We have to believe in listening and forgiveness.”
