Will Ferrell has recently premiered his new documentary, Will & Harper, which follows the Step Brothers actor and his best friend, Harper Steele, as they take a road trip together.
Ferrell explains his experience of fully accepting Harper’s new identity after having ‘zero ground knowledge’ of the trans community.
The duo met back when Harper was a writer on Saturday Night Live from 1995 to 2008. The pair gelled on set and have been friends ever since.
Ferrell has said his first reaction to learning of Steele’s gender transition was simply ‘how can we help you? What do you need us to do?’
“It was three summers ago in which Harper emailed a lot of her close friends with the headline: ‘Here’s a Weird One’,” Ferrell said at the Variety Studio presented by Audible.
“She went on to explain she was going to transition and we were all, of course, excited to hear the news and surprised to hear the news.
“All of us were extremely supportive and expressed love…but that sort of opened the questions like, ‘how can we help you? What do you need us to do?’”
The comedian explained that although he had met trans people before, he admits that he had ‘no knowledge’ about the trans community, and praised his friend for opening up and allowing him to ‘learn and ask questions’.
“I had met trans people, but I didn’t have anyone personally in my life,” Ferrell said. “So this was all new territory for me, which is why I think this film is so exciting for us to kind of put out there in the world.
“It’s a chance all of us in the cis community to be able to ask questions and also just to listen and be there as a friend to discuss this journey.”
“It tells the story of a cis friend of a trans person who has to transition himself,” Steele added of the movie.
The documentary is currently seeking distribution via The Sundance Festival, as the synopsis describes the trip as ‘Will Ferrell finds out his close friend of 30 years is coming out as a trans woman, the two decide to embark on a cross-country road trip to process this new stage of their relationship in an intimate portrait of friendship, transition, and America.”
