Will Ferrell Celebrates Harper Steele’s Transition With Emotional Road Trip in ‘Will & Harper’ Trailer
Will Ferrell’s friendship stands the test of time in the first trailer for Will & Harper, the forthcoming documentary following the actor as he embarked on a cross-country road trip with his best friend, Harper Steele. Out on Netflix Sept. 27, the film captures the pair at a pivotal moment as Steele comes out as a trans woman.
In the trailer, Ferrell brings Steele the idea of taking a trip across the country “as this new version of yourself,” adding that it will give them a chance also to figure out what this new chapter means for their decades-long friendship. At one stop, they attend a car race together. “I used to come to this kind of places before, and then I transitioned, and I got a little afraid,” Steele says. “I’m not really afraid of these people. I’m afraid of hating myself … All I wanted to do was live.”
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Ferrell and Steele met at Saturday Night Live, where Steele worked as a head writer for four years, and Ferrell made his mark as an iconic cast member. Their friendship blossomed over the years that followed. “We’d go to Lakers games, go on road trips together, surprise each other at random little bars in costume,” Ferrell told Netflix. It was his idea to capture this part of their friendship in a documentary.
“What if we went on a road trip together, giving her a chance to go into a cowboy bar or whatever places she misses, and I can be by her side and lend support as a friend?” Ferrell considered. “At the same time, it would give us a chance to reconnect, and figure out what this transition means to our relationship.”
Josh Greenbaum directed the film, which follows them from coast to coast. “I didn’t just want to come out in places like New York or LA and forever live on either coast,” Steele told Netflix. “I love the whole country. It’s my country, and I wanted to feel a little safer being in it. And I thought that going across the country with Will Ferrell would help me. That’s the privilege I have knowing Will Ferrell.”
In a review of Will & Harper, Rolling Stone‘s David Fear wrote: “What Will & Harper is, at its heart, is a portrait of a friendship and how the fundamentals of a deep and lasting bond doesn’t change even when the people within it do. That alone makes it worth the trip. Yet to hear Steele open up and see her feel accepted by one of her oldest confidants is a joy. The doc is flawed. The chance to ride shotgun in the less-outrageous, more painfully personal moments is priceless.”
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