Eddie Redmayne as transgender pioneer Lili Elbe in The Danish Girl 

This is the first photo released of Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne as transgender Lili Elbe for the upcoming film The Danish Girl, a fictionalized account of the life of the first women to receive sex reassignment surgery in the 1930s.

The transgender community has started to be recognized and have their stories told in mainstream Hollywood lately, on shows like Orange is The New Black, and Transcendence. (Bruce Jenner’s real life transition is dominating pop culture news lately.)

In 1930 Elbe went to Germany for experimental sex reassignment surgery. She was born in Denmark in 1882 as Einar Wegener, and married artist Gerta Gottlieb (played by Amber Heard) when she was 22. She first started dressing in women’s clothes to model for her life, and found she preferred living life as a woman.

There has been some controversy over why a cisgender man, Redmayne, was chosen for the role when it could have conceivably gone to a transgender woman. Nicole Kidman had previously considered it, but ultimately walked away. Reedman has lost weight for the role.

Reedman has said he’s been “observing the minutiae of feminine physicality,” and that he’s been working with movement director Alexandra Reynolds, who also helped him with his Oscar-winning role as Stephen Hawking. “We’re looking at everything from a feminine perspective,” he said, “I think it’s the most sensitive role I have played.”

The Danish Girl is set to release in 2016.