Nicole Kidman will portray the first man to undergo a sex change operation in an upcoming film adaptation of David Ebershoff’s novel The Danish Girl.

The book is loosely based on the life of Danish painter Einar Wegener, played by Kidman, who underwent a sex change operation in 1931.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, fellow Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron will play Wegener’s American wife, Greta, who prompted the transformation by asking her husband to pose as a female opera singer for one of her potraits.