GIRLTALK Magazine
(Vol 4, Num 2) 2002 | thanks Jean

Award winning comedian, actor and cross-dresser, Eddie Izzard will soon revisit the big screen starring in The Cat's Meow with Kirsten Dunst and All the Queen's Men with Matt LeBlanc. Meanwhile this past summer Eddie filmed Revenger's Tragedy on location in Liverpool, directed by Alex Cox.

Released late last year in Austria and Germany is All the Queen's Men with Eddie Izzard and Matt LeBlanc starring in a World War II comedy of cross-dressed spies infiltrating an all-female employed factory producing coding machines. (US release date pending). Funny sometimes how life imitates art.

If you remember when we interviewed Eddie in Girl Talk (Vol2, Num3) he was quoted as saying, "The more people that are 'out', the world will realize there is a large transgender population. If you wear your weaknesses on your sleeve, then they're no longer weaknesses. People use 'You're a transvestite!' and I'd say 'Yah!' and then they'd have nothing else to say."

In early April, Lion's Gate is releasing The Cat's Meow -- a tale of scandal and intrigue set in the glamorous world of 20's Hollywood directed by Peter Bogdanovich. Eddie plays the role of Charlie Chaplin with Kirsten Dunst as Marion Davies, Edward Herrmann as William Randolph Hearst and Cary Elwes as the ill-fated Hollywood mogul Thomas Ince, infamous gossip columnist Louella Parsons is played by Jennifer Tilly and Joanna Lumley co-stars as racy English novelist Eleanor Glyns.

Initial praise for Eddie's performance includes Movieline which noted: "Eddie Izzard provides a smooth, magnetic impersonation of Chaplin."

Most recently, Eddie wrapped filming The Revenger's Tragedy directed by Alex Cox (Repo Man, Sid & Nancy) which co-stars Derek Jacobi, Christopher Eccleston and Sophie Dahl. The film transposes Thomas Middleton's 17th century play to post-apocalyptic Merseyside. Despite all the stage and screen action, Izzard is not abandoning his life roots. Eddie is in the planning stages for a world tour in 2003, beginning in Berlin, where he will perform his show in German. A slight problem--he hasn't learned the language yet. But, if he can find the time in his hectic schedule, Eddie promises he'll be off the phrase book by the end of next year.

Most cross dressers in the acting profession are terminally afraid of someone finding out their innermost secret. Afraid it will destroy their career. Not so with Eddie Izzard. He proves the opposite, "I've been a TV since I was 4, it hasn't moved; it is my thing."