If you’re planning to cheer on Eddie Izzard during her Run for Hope project, or shout out a helpful suggestion during her stand-up set (just kidding, don’t do that; even kind heckles are terrible), keep in mind the British comedian is now using “she†and “her†pronouns exclusively, a fact Izzard discussed Thursday on the Sky Arts TV series Portrait Artist of the Year.
“I try to do things that I think are interesting,†she reportedly said, when asked about taking part in the show, which features contestants drawing celebrities like Izzard. “This is the first program I’ve asked if I can be ‘she’ and ‘her.’ This is a little transition period.†Says the comedian, “Well, it feels great because people assume that … they just know me from before, but I’m gender fluid. I just want to be based in girl mode from now on.â€
Izzard, who has described herself as gender fluid previously, discussed being transgender in her 2017 memoir Believe Me: A Memoir of Love, Death and Jazz Chicken. The comedian told the Hollywood Reporter in June of that year, “If you are coming out as transgender or gay or lesbian, it’s such a tough rite of passage and quest. It assaults your senses because, back in ‘85, everyone said, ‘No, no. Hide about it.’ I just thought they were all wrong. The humiliation period, the initial period, is so tough. If you keep at it, it gets better.â€
She also told NPR that summer her general “pigheadedness†stems from bucking societal expectations about gender. “It was locked in from coming out in 1985, coming out 32 years ago as transgender,†she explained. “Or, I was ‘TV’ when I came out. The language has changed over the years, transvestite/TV, transsexual/TS, we are now at trans and transgender. So, I came out in 1985, and it was very difficult to go out and forge a way out, and lock it into your life.â€