Will Ferrell on the trans community's support for "Will & Harper"

When longtime friends Will Ferrell and Harper Steele – a former head writer at Saturday Night Live who came out as a trans woman in 2021 – decided to document her road trip across the country Will and HarperThis came after the two had spent months discussing whether to open their private lives on camera.

“The ultimate selling point, I don't want to sound like a politician or altruistic, but there have been a lot of transgender laws, a lot of laws have been introduced, laws in every state, across the country, and it still looks a little restrictive and maybe a little bleak for transgender people,” Steele said The Hollywood Reporter at the film's premiere in LA on Thursday. “I don't know if this film will change hearts and minds, but you have to try to do something with your life and we felt that this could be useful.”

The two have been friends for 30 years, starting with SNL That same week and three years ago, Steele emailed Ferrell to say she was in transition to living as a woman. She had spent most of her adult life traveling the country by car, so the friends decided to take a 16-day road trip from New York to LA together to process this new phase of their friendship.

“Harper loves these cross-country road trips, she's done hundreds of them and she hasn't done one since her gender reassignment,” explained director Josh Greenbaum. “Will noticed that and she was bemoaning the fact that she didn't feel safe. So the idea came from there because Will said, 'Why don't I fly to New York and be Harper by your side on your first cross-country road trip.'”

The documentary was shown at Sundance, Telluride and TIFF throughout the year to critical acclaim. The response from the trans community in particular, says Ferrell, “blew us away. We're a little overwhelmed. At heart, we're self-hating comedians, and the fact that this thing actually works on so many levels and is so funny and that people we love and like and respect like it so much is incredible.”

As for the potential impact on the comedy community, which hasn't always been particularly accepting of transgender people, Steele noted, “You can't control the comedy community… it's always going to be a free game and there's always going to be fights, it's been that way since the beginning.” Greenbaum added, “Comedy is a reflection of culture, and culture changes. So it may take a while for comedy to catch up, but it will.”

Greenbaum also stressed that he hopes the film takes trans issues “out of the political discussion in many ways because it's such a human story; it's the personal story of two friends and I think part of the problem is that so many people don't know any trans people. It's said that 70 percent or so don't know any trans people, so they get their information from politicians or the media. Instead of allowing that media to control the story and the narrative, we should be telling those stories ourselves.”

He continued, “If you don't know a trans person and you see this movie, you now know that Harper is the best.”

Will and Harper starts streaming on Netflix on September 27th.

Will Ferrell on the trans community's support for “Will & Harper”

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