By Chris Daniel

“I was either really bad or I was trying too hard, I never got any roles, I always got to play the tree, or someone behind the tree,” Eddie Izzard laughs as he looks back at the beginning of his acting career.

In an ever-growing portfolio, Eddie Izzard remains British royalty in his own right. The 55-year old comedian, actor, writer, and political figure has previously elaborated on his life as a transgender activist, describing himself to have both a boy and a girl mode.

His filmography extends to Valkyrie, Across The Universe and Ocean’s Twelve but it seems that his life as a respected stand-up comedian has become more prominent, touring the globe to a rabid following.

With that in mind, Izzard has recently embarked on a more ambitious role in Stephen Frears’ Victoria and Abdul as Bertie, the Prince of Wales. Though clarifying that dramatic roles do spark his interest, it’s almost alien to see Izzard in such unfamiliar territory.

How much did you know about Bertie before the film?

I think he is not very well known. I think people get him mixed up with Eddie VII or Eddie VIII, who said ‘hey I’m out of here with Wallis Simpson’. I know a lot about history so I knew he was there, but the first thing that you hear about is his sexual liaisons, the chair that was made for having sex in… that kind of burns brightly. I mean how do you even commission that? ‘Do you know any chair makers that could make a chair for having sex in?’

So, I knew a certain amount about him, but not that much, and I didn’t know the story at all. You have to have a healthy ego. The beautiful thing about Bertie is that he is the only one who can tell mum to piss off all the way through. It was in the script but I added things along the way. There was this big scene at the end where [Queen Victoria] gets everyone in, and I come in and just sit down. Stephen [Frears] held it in the frame, he had Ali [Fazal] standing up, I’m sitting down and she’s right on the Sergio Leone sort of shot, the half profile of the head, huge on the screen. I loved that because he really wanted her to stop living, ‘give me a turn on the throne, it’s my turn’. It wasn’t really racist what he had against Abdul. He could have been any skin colour, any size or shape. He was just getting in his way. And when you think about it, Abdul gave Victoria another ten years of life, because she was eating herself to death, and then met him in 1887, and kept on for another 14 years.

Do you think Bertie deserves his own film?

I think so, but I wouldn’t do that film. He didn’t change the world, but it’s fascinating. If you take all the sexual relations in it and what was happening with Victoria’s grandchildren. Because the Kaiser was her grandson, people were often wondering what the Kaiser was doing in the film. Victoria’s daughter, who is Bertie’s sister, was the Kaiser’s mother, and he didn’t actually get along with his mother. So, the Kaiser was against everyone else, and then he is also fighting with his cousin, and also with the Czarist guys who are also in the same family circle. So, everyone is fighting each other. It’s a bizarre thing that was going on. He could do a good short film I think, but he isn’t really earth shattering.

Is it true that Stephen Frears told you to fuck off and die?

Yes, in a nice way. We were shooting at Osborne House; we weren’t allowed to touch anything and you had to put these booties onto the bottom of your shoes. Stephen put them on, and I must have said something that just worked, something like ‘why don’t you put that on your head’ or ‘is that a particular look you’re going for?’ and he just turned to me and said, ‘just fuck off and die’. That was a connection rather than a disconnection, so I was very happy about that. Someone asked me why I took this job, but if Stephen came to me and said, ‘I have this film, Judi Dench is in it, I’m directing it, you can play a blade of grass’, I would have said yes. He came to see me perform my stand-up, so it is a weird thing that I’m doing here, holding back comedy to pull up this drama.

Is there a historical figure that you would like to play?

I like Richard III, but there is no real historical figure that I want to play. I like playing driven people, because I think we all have that potential inside of us.

What about Churchill? Most British actors are now playing Churchill…

I know, it’s real Churchill time isn’t it, so I think give me another five years and I could play him.

Would you prefer to do more acting?

Well, I’ve been acting for 25 years; it’s my first love. I saw a play when I was seven, Boy with a Cart by Christopher Fry and I said ‘that, I want to do that’. I was quite young and I think I was trying too hard; I would go to auditions and think that I could say my lines really loud. I was either really bad or I was trying too hard, I never got any roles, I always got to play the tree, or someone behind the tree. When I discovered Monty Python’s comedy, I decided I wanted to do that because you can write your own scripts and give yourself a big personal knack. It took so long for comedy to come that when it finally did and it started to take off, I got myself a separate acting agent to bring up my dramatic roles. It’s an odd thing to do. It’s confused everyone since.

Why do you think people are so intrigued by British royalty?

I like the Scandinavian, the Dutch, they are much more real. I think that’s what William and Harry are doing, trying to make it more human. If you have this Oedipus… you know if you consider yourself anything other than a normal person, say, for instance, if you watch The Crown television series, that’s where it gets fascinating. People want to know what actually went down. The British Monarchy, with Victoria being Grandmother to all these children that were going to tear each other apart in the First World War. There’s positive fascination and horror fascination. The story of Nelson Mandela, that’s positive fascination, whereas horror fascination is about all the bad things people have done in the world where you want to know more. There are different ways in why we are fascinated.

Did you ever watch the royal weddings?

No, it’s hereditary privilege. It’s not a good example for children. People get born with lots of money and everyone just bows at them their entire life, and for what reason? There isn’t one.

You did stand up in India, what was that experience like?

It was fantastic. I wanted to play there before the film came out; it was beautiful to get in there. When I was in Asia I had a lot of expat people, and I love just playing to local citizens, whereas in India I had 95% Indian citizens coming. That was in Mumbai and New Delhi, but I could definitely play more cities.

When you do something like that, do you study the area before the show?

You think you would but that’s not the way I drive my comedy. For example, when we show this film in Stockholm, we will put subtitles on, but we won’t show it from their perspective, we will just give them the story. So, when I do my stand-up, I start with a joke about human sacrifice where I talk about the crops being bad, the gods obviously hate us, so we are going to kill Steve. Everywhere I go, everyone understands it and digs it because they are open minded.

You do your show in four languages?

I’m just a pushy bastard. It’s just work and I have a desire to learn new languages and it’s a positive vibe because it’s anti hate where you want to learn from other countries. We are all human beings; I’m not going to be prejudiced against anyone. I do radical things with a moderate message. If these extremists are going to try and send us back to 1930s politics then us moderates have to get out there and do things, create things, put on a positive face, because otherwise we are going to be dragged back to a time of hatred and we know that doesn’t work.

And are you still on track with your political career?

Yes, I will try and stand to be a Member of Parliament in the first general election after 2020. So, I will have to go and write films, make films, do tours, learn languages…

Victoria and Abdul is in cinemas now.

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