I’ll confess, I’m predisposed to liking Will Ferrell. From Ron Burgundy to Alex Trebek to the CEO of Mattel, there has been nary a performance of his over the last 30 years that I’ve not at least chuckled at, if not burst into hysterics rewatching. And from all I have heard from my numerous well-heeled USC sports fanatic friends, there isn’t a prouder, more generous and more accessible booster and sideline stalker than he, especially if the Trojans are winning.
So when his latest project, WILL AND HARPER, was being shown at recent film festivals in advance of this month’s limited theatrical release and, last night, its global drop on NETFLIX, I was paying attention. And the more I read of both the execution and intent, the more eagerly I was counting down the hours until I could see it. So despite being overwhelmed with exhaustion and frustration from a particularly trying day, I made sure to make a strong pot of coffee and carve out some time last night to watch.
And thankfully, it essentially delivered on the promises of its hype, landing me in about the same camp that ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY’s Lauren Huff conveyed in her own review from yesterday:
Will & Harper is a documentary full of surprises.
The basic premise follows the 16-day, cross-country road trip between comedian and actor Will Ferrell and longtime friend and fellow Saturday Night Live alum Harper Steele. After nearly 30 years of friendship, Steele came out as a trans woman to Ferrell and the two decided to embark on the journey to rediscover their friendship, and Steele could rediscover the country and locales she loves — this time as herself.
Or, perhaps, closer to the conclusion that ESQUIRE’s Brady Langmann came to as he lauded their filmmaker partner in this project, the nuanced and talented Josh Greenbaum:
(I)t would’ve been enough to show Steele and Ferrell’s sprawling, My Dinner with Andre–style talks on the ride. But that’s not what makes Will & Harper one of the year’s best—if not the best—documentaries. Greenbaum delivered a striking portrait of coming out as transgender in a year that, as of June, saw U.S. legislators consider 617 anti-transgender bills (and a potential president in Donald Trump—who, if he wins, poses a major threat to transgender Americans). We watch as Steele finds support at a rural bar but face-staggering hate at a seemingly benign Texas steakhouse. “If you start to engage and listen to people like Harper and so many others, you’ll realize, These are just people who are trying to live their lives,” Greenbaum says.
It was a positive enough experience to see a side of Ferrell that few outside the USC fund-raising and entertainment management worlds have known. Ferrell is as thoughtful and loyal to his longtime friend as he has been to his alma mater and the hundreds of actors and employees who have grown their careers through their association with FUNNY OR DIE. He expressed to Huff his bottom-line intention–clearly not financially-driven–in such a mannerL
I think there’s a number of people who show up in the doc who express — I keep talking about this — I think we’re all dying for just acts of civility. We watched the debate last night and it’s like, I think we’re just tired of whatever side you’re on,” Ferrell admits. “And I think this [film] is encouraging to people that there are discussions to be had out there, and that people are willing to listen. And it doesn’t mean that there isn’t… yes, trans people, queer communities still face a lot of hate. But I think we’re showing that there’s still space out there for people to evolve. And also too, that just expressing advocacy for our friends, regardless of what they’re going through or experiencing, is another potential takeaway from watching this.”
But it is Steele, who was once SNL’s head writer and the mastermind behind many of the more memorable skits and performances of Ferrell’s era (including, as Will proudly displays on a vintage tee, OOPS! I Crapped My Pants!), who is the heart and soul of this work, and she unashamedly shares both her pain and her renaissance. As she tries to remind, for as different as she lives her life now, in many ways she still has qualities of the Andrew Steele she was, including, as she confesses in the film, an addiction to road trip essentials like “chairs, a cooler and a natty beer”. Ferrell expresses what he’d hope to be the kind of questions an objective person might have when given this opportunity, a point Greenbaum drove home to Langmann:
There’s a statistic: 70 percent of people don’t directly know a trans person….The unknown with Harper became known as soon as she walked into places. She’s so personable and funny that all of a sudden that scary unknown became Oh, okay, she’s cool. She’s funny. She likes s***** beer. And you go, This thing that I was either apprehensive about or afraid of, it’s not so scary all of a sudden.
But it is Steele’s frankness and vulnerability that is most compelling. Whether it’s with her former colleagues Seth Meyers and Tina Fey, or an inattentive waitress in a small town diner who addresses her as “sir”, or his family, Steele is both instructive and inspiring. And that’s all the more important considering there are still voices like Kirsten Fleming’s out there who are also weighing in. Here’s how she felt obligated to react:
Will Ferrell is hilarious. He is charming and self deprecating. He is clearly a loyal and caring friend. And he is also living in a bubble that allows him to willfully misunderstand why there is any tension around the transgender issue.
(I)n a new interview with The Independent, Ferrell shows his further delusion.
“But I don’t know why trans people are meant to be threatening to me as a cis male,” Ferrell told The (sic) Indepdent. “I don’t know why Harper is threatening to me.”
No one in their right mind sees Steele, or any transgender person, as a threat to a six foot 3 dude. Ferrell is not a woman and hasn’t had his space — locker rooms, prisons, rape centers and sports — invaded by biological men who are able to gain entry with only a few magic words:
“I identify as a woman.”
He hasn’t, like Riley Gaines, been harrassed and even attacked simply because she advocated for fairness in women’s sports.
He doesn’t have daughters so maybe he hasn’t had to worry about this blurring of biological truth. Most people do not begrudge Steele happiness. We care if Steele’s happiness infringes on our rights as women.
It probably wouldn’t be a surprise for you to discover that Fleming wrote that tone-deaf, high-minded and outright ignorant piece for THE NEW YORK POST. I honestly wonder if she watched the same work that I did.
Perhaps she missed the part where Steele’s own daughter shrugged her shoulders when asked by Ferrell how she now refers to her biological father: “I call him Pops”. She didn’t seem to have any problems. Nor did dozens of other women who are seen in the film, including the distracted diner waitress who quickly and humbly apologized for her unintended mistake.
Ferrell may exist in a world of funny OR die. Steele now occupies one where those egged on by the likes of Fleming is funny AND die.
At a time when, as Langmann detailed, as of June… U.S. legislators (were) consider(ing) 617 anti-transgender bills (and a potential president in Donald Trump—who, if he wins, poses a major threat to transgender Americans), there is an urgency for this work to be seen, and, if nothing else, the Netflix algorithm will provide it. It’s worth your time, especially if your days are less difficult than Steele’s, let alone mine.
Until next time…