I'M NOT TRYING TO EXPLOIT OUR FRIENDSHIP," Will Ferrell says to Harper Steele, his longtime collaborator. "I'm not trying to exploit your exciting, wonderful, joyous news." His tone isn't defensive; Steele, sitting beside him, smiles at this echo of a conversation they've obviously had many times before. Really, Ferrell is answering my question: when one of your closest mates comes out to you as a transgender woman, how do you end up making a film about it? The film in question, Will & Harper, is not a typical one for Ferrell, best known for his goofball antics in the likes of Anchorman, Zoolander and last year's megahit Barbie. It's a Netflix documentary, and one in which Ferrell, albeit on screen throughout, isn't quite the focal point. That would be Steele, former head writer of Saturday Night Live (SNL), and close friends with the actor since they both started work on the long-running sketch TV show in 1995. Two years ago, aged 61, she wrote to Ferrell with some news: after a lifetime of unspoken gender dysphoria, she was transitioning to become the woman she was always meant to be.
Ferrell was immediately supportive; he also had a lot of questions. Such conversations aren't best had from opposite coasts: the actor, a born-and-bred Californian, was based in Los Angeles, while Steele was back in New York.
What about a cross-country road trip, Ferrell suggested, where they could talk things through in their own time? And what if they filmed it too? For a few months, Steele ruled it out. "I don't like being on camera, so my initial decision was just based on that," she explains. "But transitioning is a process, and so I started to feel a little more comfortable with who I was. And the fact is, there was a lot of legislation and bills being introduced across America that were very damaging to my community.
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