Eddie Izzard proudly outspoken on trans issues but admits: ‘I would’ve been murdered in Nazi Germany’

Eddie Izzard is proud to be publicly outspoken about trans and other LGBTQ+ issues but admits she ‘would have been murdered in Nazi Germany’ for doing so. 

The actor and comedian requested the use of ‘she’ and ‘her’ pronouns in December, confirming she was gender fluid. 

Working on her new film, thriller Six Minutes To Midnight – set just before World War II in 1939 – has made Eddie realise how lucky she is to be freely open about her gender fluidity in modern times. 

Speaking to Sky News, the actress said: ‘I consider being trans a superhero thing – I wanted to put it in a very positive light with superheroes because some people are so negative about LGBT stuff. 

‘I’ve been out and open about it since 1985, it’s a long time… And if we go back to the 1930s, if I’ve been in Nazi Germany, I would have been murdered for saying that I was trans.’ 

‘Gay people were put in concentration camps. That’s what this extreme right-wing thinking will do,’ she added. 

Reflecting on her own coming out, Eddie said: ‘As someone with my history and coming out as trans way back in 1985, people say: “Oh, well, you’re not someone who does action stuff”, but I am really an action person, as people now know… I do a good deal of running in this film.’ 

Eddie, 59, recently admitted that using female pronouns felt like a ‘promotion’. 

Appearing on the Life, Interrupted podcast, she told Simon Thomas: ‘Your biological body [can give] different signals as to how it is in the brain, but I do feel gender fluid – I have got boy genetics and girl genetics, so I call it boy mode and girl mode. 

‘These may not be great phrases but I can’t think of better words. Man mode and woman mode doesn’t sound good so I’m going with those at the moment, but language can change over the years. 

‘I am gender fluid, I do seem to be a mixture, but I’m now based in girl mode as a trans woman. And now that pronouns have come out [it] feels like a promotion, I’m very happy with that.’ 

Eddie requested the use of ‘she’ and ‘her’ pronouns in December during an episode of Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year. 

Eddie Izzard’s new film, Six Minutes To Midnight, is available on Sky Cinema and NOW TV from March 26.

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