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Eddie Izzard says it’s ‘a great honour’ to be recognised by she/her pronouns as she opens up on transphobia-Samuel McManus-Entertainment – Metro
Eddie adopted she/her pronouns in 2020.
Eddie Izzard says it is ‘a great honour’ to be called ‘she/her’ (Picture: Vianney Le Caer/Shutterstock)
Eddie Izzard has said it is ‘a great honour’ to be recognised by she/her pronouns two years after publicly adopted them during a TV appearance.
The 60-year-old was appearing on Portrait Artist of the Year in 2020 when she said she wants ‘to be based in girl mode from now on’ after previously identifying as genderfluid.
During a new interview with The Irish Times, the comedian was asked what pronouns she would like to be used, replying: ‘Prefer she/her, don’t mind he/him, so no one can get it wrong. And I didn’t change them. The world changed them.’
She explained: ‘I was on a programme. They said, “Do you want she/her or he/him?” I went, “Ahh, oh, she.” I’d been thinking of changing them.
‘And then the programme went out, and the whole world changed them. Two days,’ she said, before making ‘a sound effect like a series of detonations.’
Eddie continued: ‘All news outlets, particularly in America and Britain, where I’m known probably the strongest and Australia and Canada and New Zealand, where I’m also known, she/her now. And I went, “Oh, okay.”
Eddie asked to be addressed she/her on Portrait Artist of the Year in 2020 (Picture: Nicky J Sims/Getty Images)
‘I thought it was a great honour, I’ve been promoted – promoted to she. That’s how it was. But I didn’t actively have a campaign about it. It just happened. You know, I came out 37 years ago.
‘Some people grumble. I say, well, how much notice do you need? Thirty-eight years? Thirty-nine years?’
Eddie also touched on transphobia she has faced since adopting the pronouns, particularly from the political world after her bid for an open seat in Parliament.
Discussing the barrage of abuse she faced at the time, Eddie said: ‘We were considered nonpeople, or toxic people. And I realised that my job is to try and knit being trans into society. We had a hard time just trying to exist.
She faced transphobia from MPs during a political campaign earlier this year (Picture: Matthew Horwood/Getty Images)
‘A lot of people have been wonderfully accepting, and young people are very open and great. Some people are still transphobic, but I just ignore them.’
Eddie is currently starring on Broadway in her own one-woman production of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations.
She is playing all 19 characters in the New York production, which she read upon realising she is 150 years to the day younger than the late writer.
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Speaking about the show ahead of its first audience, Eddie said: ‘Charles Dickens loved performing his own works in America, and so I thought it would be a wonderful idea to launch Great Expectations here.
‘I always feel at home in New York, and I believe if Charles Dickens were alive today, he would feel at home too.’
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