NBC correspondent Joe Fryer sat down for an interview with actor Eddie Izzard for the Saturday edition of Today to hype a solo performance of Hamlet. While that may be interesting by itself, Fryer claimed that Izzard’s transgender and “gender fluid” identities help Izzard portray the vast assortment of characters in the play.
Before launching into the pre-recorded segment, Fryer hyped, “Yeah, so here’s the deal: Izzard has no co-stars, this is a one-person production of the famous Shakespearean play. Izzard, who uses she/her pronouns and came out as transgender in 1985, told me being gender fluid helps her portray so many roles, male and female. It's a challenge she's relishing.”
Males have been playing female characters and females have been playing male characters since the beginning of plays. It’s called “acting.” It is ironic that Fryer chose to hype Izzard's version of Hamlet because, in Shakespeare’s day, it was standard procedure for young men to play female characters. Somehow, those men were able to play female characters and still know that, when they took their costumes off, they were still men.
Fryer then launched into his profile of Izzard, but he never showed any clip of Izzard claiming being gender fluid helps one be a better actor.
After playing several clips from Izzard’s career, Fryer did manage to get in one more round of pronoun madness, “Now Izzard, who uses she/her pronouns, is in the middle of doing Shakespeare's Hamlet all by herself.”
Maybe Fryer does have a point, just not the one he thinks he has. Actors—whether portraying someone of the same sex, opposite sex, or a talking animal—pretend to be people they aren’t, just like Izzard in real life. The only difference is that one demands to be taken literally.
Here is a transcript for the February 17 show:
NBC Today
2/17/2014
8:18 AM ET
JOE FRYER: Yeah, so here’s the deal: Izzard has no co-stars, this is a one-person production of the famous Shakespearean play. Izzard, who uses she/her pronouns and came out as transgender in 1985, told me being gender fluid helps her portray so many roles, male and female. It's a challenge she's relishing.
To be 23 different characters or not to be, that is the question and Eddie Izzard's one-person show is the answer.
EDDIE IZZARD: I do believe a number of people around the world and say, particularly in New York say “this is different. We'll give you a chance.”
FRYER: Izzard rose to fame as a comedian with quotable stand-up specials, like the Emmy-winning Dress to Kill.
IZZARD: Do you have a flag?
FRYER: You may also recognize Izzard from the TV show, The Riches.
[SCENE FROM THE RICHES]
In the movies, Oceans 12 and 13.
IZZARD [AS ROMAN NAGEL]: Danny, I like you and you, Rusty.
IZZARD: I always wanted to be here in New York so when I come back, it is like coming home.
FRYER: Now Izzard, who uses she/her pronouns, is in the middle of doing Shakespeare's Hamlet all by herself.
IZZARD [AS POLONIUS]: Though this be madness, yet there is a method in it.
FRYER: It comes a year after a successful solo run of Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations .
Hamlet is, I believe, 29,551 words, I'm guessing you shortened that a little bit, but it's still a lot of words, right?
IZZARD: It is a lot, it's about 13 to 15,000 words.
FRYER: Shakespearean words, how do you memorize that?
IZZARD: It's hard work, the mental stress of getting to this place has been intense.
