Eddie Izzard plans to change his legal name.
The British comedian and activist – who announced in 2020, who prefers pronouns — revealed the “Political PartyTuesday podcast.
“I’m going to add another name, which is Suzy, which I’ve wanted to be since I was 10,” Izzard said about an hour and eight minutes into the episode. “So I’ll be Suzy Eddie Izzard. That’s how I’m going to shoot, so people can choose what they want. They can’t go wrong, they can’t go wrong with me.”
Izzard also said that he would probably continue to use Eddie Izzard publicly as a comedian, but also admitted that “things move with time, so I don’t know.”
Izzard explained that growing up he always identified with the name Suzy, but thought “no, that’s not going to happen”.
“And then ‘Eddie’ became that name,” Izzard said, referring to his famous name. “And I thought, ‘Well, you can’t do that again.’
But Izzard began to think twice about his name after he publicly announced his nickname change.
“If I’m doing it with her/him, why don’t I add it?” [Suzy] by name?” said Izzard. “Because I have Edward on my passport, Edward is quite massive and big and it’s not my name. … So I thought I’d put Suzy in there, then Eddie, and people they can choose what they want and no one can go wrong. It’s pretty funny.”
Matthew Horwood via Getty Images
Izzard announced the name change while discussing his decision to change his pronouns, admitting that he had made “mistakes with my own pronouns” and felt indifferent to them. That is until 2019, when he was awarded an honorary degree by Swansea University in the UK. Izzard explained on the podcast that a “wonderful chancellor” gave his graduation speech and used his pronouns and it really resonated with the “Ocean’s Twelve” and “Ocean’s Thirteen” actor.
Izzard later told the official that using his pronouns “put a positive spin on me, it was just amazing”.
Izzard then switched to her pronouns in December 2020 when Sky Arts did a segment on her for ‘Portrait Artist of the Year’ and introduced the new pronouns, calling it “a period of transition”.
Izzard added to Sky Arts that “it’s great because people assume they know me before… but I’m gender fluid. I just want to stay girly from now on.
