Will Ferrell Pitched Doc ‘Will & Harper’ to Best Friend as Way “For Me to Learn” About Her Trans Journey
Will Ferrell and longtime friend Harper Steele discussed the origins of their road-trip documentary Will & Harper at The Hollywood Reporter’s studio during the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.
Ferrell and Steele have been best friends for 30 years and worked together at Saturday Night Live when they were both launching their Hollywood careers in comedy. Their new film documents the pair taking a cross-country road trip together following Steele coming out as a trans woman.
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“The conception of the whole discussion, for some reason in my head, was a documentary,” Ferrell said. “Of course, I made it clear to Harper, ‘I don’t want to exploit our friendship, but this could, I think, be just a wonderful way for us to explore this topic. Obviously, for me to learn, ask all the questions that I have about what you’re going through and who you are, have you changed?'”
He continued, “And I think we eventually landed on the same square: If we actually could convince someone to film it, that maybe it would be something that people would watch. And it would just give them a different perspective or just show off the fact that two people can have a conversation about this.”
Will & Harper, which premiered at Sundance and is seeking distribution, was directed by Josh Greenbaum (Strays). It counts Ferrell, Rafael Marmor, Jessica Elbaum and Christopher Leggett as producers.
For her part, Steele saw the benefit to telling her story in front of the camera with Ferrell. She previously wrote Ferrell’s 2012 Spanish-language film Casa de Mi Padre and co-wrote the 2020 Netflix release Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga with the star.
“It was only my second year of transition, and I thought this would help me dissipate some of the nervousness around it,” Steele recalled. “Walking around with a big shot like Will was gonna be helpful to me.”
Watch the full conversation in the video above, which includes Ferrell revealing the wildly popular prestige television series that he has never seen. THR’s studio during the Sundance Film Festival is sponsored by Heineken, Hyundai, Bogner and SIXT.
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