Eddie Izzard says pronoun change wasn’t planned: ‘It was fantastic’
Eddie Izzard. (Noam Galai/Getty)
Comedian Eddie Izzard has opened up about the public taking her she/her pronouns and running with them.
Izzard was appearing on a Sky Arts programme in December 2020 when she was asked which pronouns she used.
She replied she/her – which she has gone by publicly since. But in a new interview, Izzard said the moment wasn’t planned, and in fact she was only thinking about changing her pronouns at the time.
“I didn’t change my pronouns – I was thinking of changing them,” she told My Seven Wonders with Clive Anderson.
“I went on a programme called Portrait Artist of the Year, Sky Arts, very nice, go on there.
“Some young artists painting me, they ask me, like a coffee thing, they said, ‘She/her or he/him?’ I was wearing a dress and I’m based as a trans woman now, so, ‘She/her, I’ll have a latte.’ It was that kind of lack of stress.”
Izzard’s pronoun update made headlines, and won her praise from transgender activists, fellow comedians and Stonewall.
Eddie Izzard attends The South Bank Sky Arts Awards. (Dave J Hogan/Getty)
“In two days in America and Britain where I’m best known, all my pronouns were changed. Which is fantastic, a great honour. I’ve been promoted to she, I see it as a great honour,” Izzard said.
“But I prefer she/her, don’t mind he/him, and I’m going to be relaxed about it. It’s not the time for fighting each other on this.”
She explained that the Sky show was “the first programme I’ve asked if I can be she and her, a little transition period.”
Speaking about her journey of coming out, she added: “When I came out I was trying to put words out that were better than ‘I am a transvestite’ because that latin word just sounded so negative…
“I knew this definition of trans, transgender that’s kind of where I was but I am genderfluid, I think I have the gift of boy genetics and girl genetics.”
Eddie Izzard also spoke about her continued ambitions to run as a Labour MP, something she has been vocal about since 2010, and how ex-comedian and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has inspired her.
“He’s been very strong. Very consistent,” she said of his leadership.
