Actor-comic Eddie
Izzard talks about cross-dressing against the Nazis with Matt LeBlanc in their
new film, All The Queens Men
by Austin Bun | thanks
Teri and Magic1
Good
luck trying to pigeonhole Eddie Izzard, the 40-year old British comedian, actor,
and transvestite icon. Known as much for his plum-red lipstick and painted nails
as his surreal stand-up routines, Izzard has played a horny Charlie Chaplin
(The Cat's Meow) and a disco-mad henchman (Mystery Men) and now stars as a bisexual
crossdressing officer in the World War II comedy All The Queen's Men with Matt
LeBlanc, opening October 25th.
The film roles are recent compared with Izzard's brilliantly unclassifiable
comedy. Americans who haven't caught his act would be well advised to check
out Dress to Kill, his Emmy award-winning HBO stand-up show, available November
26th on DVD from Anti/Epitaph. Izzard doesn't do jokes, exactly. Rather, he's
a storyteller with a gift for finding the absurd and exaggerating from there.
In person, the wily Izzard defies expectations. Just when you expect him in
a little eyeliner and rouge, he shows up in "bloke mode" - jeans, flip-flops,
red denim shirt, and makeup-defying beard. Izzard talked with The Advocate about
his old life in comedy and his new life in movies as "action transvestite".
In All the
Queen's Men you and Matt play British army officers impersonating women to infiltrate
a factory that makes the Egnima code machine. Did you teach him anything?
Only how to walk like a woman. I just said, "Think ocean liner - like you're
cutting through the sea like that." The more you weigh, the less you rock, and
you're not going to get a hugely girly walk.
As a film,
it's not that campy. It's as much a war movie as a comedy.
Yeah, we wanted to unvamp it. It's supposed to be Some Like It Hot crossed with
The Guns of Navarone. These days I'm trying not to do wide-mouth frog comedy,
like, "Oh, no! Not the monkey with a gun!" I've only just started to get the
hang of the techniques of film - which are vastly different from stand-up. With
movies you do a take that is 75% crap and 25% which really nails it, and the
director and editor pull out the good bits and you look genius. You have to
live in little bursts.
You were recently
in Mexico filming a Western. Did you stop the transvestite thing during that?
Not stopped, because it's my sexuality - it's built in. But I wasn't throwing
on a dress or makeup at that moment. So I was action-transvestite. I'm finding
there is a distinct part of me that is a boy that I wasn't really appreciating
before. Now that my transvestite side is not repressed, I can enjoy getting
on a horse and galloping around.
You've done stand-up
for years and even won two Emmys for your HBO show. But now with a film career,
will you keep doing it?
Absolutely. I took a year off from stand-up, but I'm going to tour again next
year - England, Germany, France. I learned French so I could perform in Paris.
I don't feel comfortable yet in German, but I'm learning. It's necessary for
the future of the world for me to do this - if Europe can't pull off coming
together, then the world is screwed.
Were you afraid
that after coming out as a transvestite you'd lose your career?
When I came out I wasn't doing stand-up. I wasn't even doing street performing.
Then when my stand-up started taking off, I thought, I'd better announce being
TV so that I can control it. I told a journalist I was friendly with. I was
29. I hadn't told my dad; he was the only person I hadn't told. As soon as I
told him, I started talking about it onstage.
It hasn't affected
you professionally?
In Britain critics say, "We haven't seen you in a dress for some time, so what
is this?" In America I've seen it written that I wasn’t getting anywhere as
a stand-up until I started wearing a dress. Well, fuck that. I was. I just want
to make sure that my creative work is so good that people don't say, "He's just
a professional transvestite."
You're a heterosexual
transvestite - what was it like to come out?
I got caught stealing makeup when I was 15. At 21, I had bits and pieces. I
told my ex-girlfriend, and I said, "I'm going to tell everyone." It was obviously
a stupid line. I wasn't going to tell everyone. But the line went through my
head: Tell everyone, tell everyone. When I was 23, I was in Islington [a London
borough], and there was a transsexual help group there - the only one in the
whole country. It was down the road a half a mile. And I thought, Well, this
is karma. So I went down there, and that helped me to come out. My whole big
thing when I came out was that I had to go to the dentist, the doctor, the bank
in makeup, and break conventions. But if you're a straight transvestite, it's
confusing. Why am I not bisexual? It seemed so much more logical. I've tried
fantasizing about men, like Johnny Depp - God, that guy looks amazing - but
I still don't want to sleep with him. So I'm a male lesbian.
Have you ever
wanted to switch genders?
Yeah. But I think I'd look like a bloke who had a sex change. So I may as well
stay who I am.
Bunn also writes for The New York Times Magazine.