On February 20. British comedian and self identified executive transvestite Eddie Izzard spoke at Harvard’s Memorial Church to accept the Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award in Cultural Humanism presented by The HSS Cultural Humanism committee at Harvard. Dressed in his signature drag as he sits with me after the event, Izzard sips a glass of wine and cracks open pistachios with long fingernails painted a bright shade of red. A couple of designs on his nails stand out.

1. Fifteen Minutes: I see that two of your nails aren’t red. What’s the story behind those?

Eddie Izzard: That’s the British flag, and that’s the European flag. So I’m a British-European transvestite.

2. FM: That’s a lot of European pride.

EI: Yeah. That’s a political statement. It displays my sexuality and political alignment, and I like it because it’s girly, but it’s also political. So it’s tough-edged, girly, and very shiny and sparkly.

3. FM: Do you have any big future plans? I hear the papacy is vacant.

EI: I’m running for mayor of London, so that’s a big enough plan.

4. FM: What made you decide to run?

EI: I felt like I could be political, and if I wasn’t doing entertainment, I would do politics. Which is slightly bonkers, since I like the entertainment industry and politics looks tougher. But, I thought because the Nazis and fascists keep coming back and keep bringing racism and xenophobia and putting that forward, I felt I should go in. I have a certain amount of energy and new ideas, and I think I should put that into the mix. I should do at least one election and see what happens to see what I can do. Sometimes you have to stand up and be counted.

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