Longtime Friends Will Ferrell and Harper Steele Grow Even Closer in ‘Will & Harper’ Trailer
Will Ferrell and Harper Steele share the sweet story of their friendship in the trailer for their upcoming Netflix documentary, Will & Harper.
“A long time ago, back when I was at Saturday Night Live, I met a guy who was hired as a writer on the same week I was hired,” recalls Ferrell in the preview. “He wrote a bunch of sketches for me and eventually became the head writer of SNL and, over the years, he became one of my closest friends.”
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“And then one day, I got this email,” the Anchorman star continues. Steele had written to him revealing that she was “transitioning to live as a woman.” Ferrell was supportive of his friend’s transition and invited her to go on a road trip with him “as this new version of [herself] and, at the same time, figure out what this all means” for their friendship.
The trailer provides glimpses of heart-to-heart moments on the road. At one point, Steele asks her friend, “Were you a little worried about how to talk to me when I came out to you?” Ferrell responds, “Yeah, probably a little nervous.” Steele reminds him that “there are no ground rules with friends.” Steele later tells Ferrell in the car that she invites her friends to ask questions about her transition, as she is “not afraid to talk about it.”
Ferrell brings levity to the conversation with a joke: “Here’s a question: Do you think you’re a worse driver as a female driver?” As Ferrell laughs at his own joke, Steele sighs and says, “That’s the dumbest … that is so … fuck you. But I am.”
Will & Harper, which premiered at Sundance in January, will be available to stream on Netflix Sept. 27. It will also be released in select theaters on Sept. 13.
“The conception of the whole discussion, for some reason in my head, was a documentary,” Ferrell told The Hollywood Reporter at Sundance about the decision to capture their road trip on camera. “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.”
The documentary was directed by Josh Greenbaum, with Ferrell, Greenbaum, Samantha Apfel, Carolina Barlow, Jessica Elbaum, Christopher Leggett and Rafael Marmor serving as producers.
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