Will Ferrell Gets an Education From Trans Friend

Will Ferrell and Harper Steele were hired at Saturday Night Live in the same week in 1995. They forged a bond that remained solid as Ferrell became a movie star and Steele emerged as SNL's head writer. Yet Ferrell admits he wasn't sure how to talk to his friend of 30 years when Steele (born Andrew) came out as transgender in 2022. The awkwardness he felt is fully acknowledged in Will & Harper, streaming Friday on Netflix, per Variety. As the pair tour the US, visiting dive bars and race tracks, Ferrell "serves as a surrogate for viewers at home who, even if completely unbothered by trans people, still might have questions about trans identity that are typically tiptoed around," writes Adam White in the Independent.

Ferrell jokingly wonders whether Steele still likes beer or now prefers wine, per the BBC, and whether she's a worse driver now than when she lived as a man. "I am," responds Steele, deadpan. "We just wanted to address what it's like for two people who are friends—what all of this means to us, and to our friendship moving forward," Steele tells the Independent. "I needed him to see the joy I was experiencing. And I also wanted to demonstrate to my friend here that I was still funny. And probably funnier than him." That's "debatable," says Ferrell. What is not debatable is that "there is hatred" for trans people, he says. "But I don't know why trans people are meant to be threatening to me as a cis male."

"It's so strange to me, because Harper is finally... her. She's finally who she was always meant to be," continues Ferrell. "Whether or not you can ultimately wrap your head around that, why would you care if somebody's happy?" Ultimately, "if the trans community is a threat to you, I think it stems from not being confident or safe with yourself." The film is not particularly political, but it is meant to speak, on some level, to the "very traditionally straight, cis-male, bro-y" part of Ferrell's fanbase, director Josh Greenbaum tells the Independent. "At its core it's a very pure, simple story of two friends" and "I think more hearts and minds can be changed and affected by that." (More Will Ferrell stories.)