American actor and comedian Will Ferrell features in a new documentary streaming now on Netflix – but it’s not quite the genre you might expect from the Anchorman star.
Ferrell, 57, rose to fame as a Saturday Night Live cast member and has since starred in a string of comedy hits including Elf, Get Hard and Step Brothers, but now returns to our screens for a road trip with his long-time friend Harper Steele.
Here’s everything you need to know as the pair’s new documentary airs on Netflix.
Who is Harper Steele?
Harper Steele is an American comedy writer and friend of comedian and actor Will Ferrell, with whom she appears in the 2024 Netflix documentary Will & Harper.
Harper Steele (formerly Andrew Steele) grew up in Iowa City and graduated from the University of Iowa with an English degree before starting work at Saturday Night Live (SNL), the American late-night sketch comedy and variety show that has served as a launchpad and meeting place for many big names in the industry, in 1995.
She worked at SNL for 13 years – four of them as head writer – between 1995 and 2008, earning four Emmy Awards nominations in that time and winning one, in 2002.
After departing SNL, Steele joined Funny or Die, a comedy video website and production company that had just partnered with HBO, taking on the role of creative director as well as executive producer of HBO’s Funny or Die Presents. She went on to produce the first dozen half-hour Funny or Die shows aired on HBO, writing for nine of them.
Steele – who former SNL colleague Jimmy Fallon has called “one of the funniest people I think I’ve ever met in my lifetime” – has also co-written films including Casa de mi padre, The Ladies Man, and Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga.
A few years ago, aged 61, she came out as a transgender woman – first to close friends and family – and began the process of transitioning.
Her gender transition is the subject of the Netflix documentary Will & Harper, released this month.
How did Harper Steele and Will Ferrell meet?
Steele and Ferrell met back in 1995 when the pair started working at SNL within the same week.
Forging a friendship and working partnership that would go on to last decades – right up to the present day – the two continued to collaborate when Steele joined Funny or Die, which was co-founded by Ferrell, and they worked together on several productions including Casa de mi padre and Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga.
What is Will & Harper about?
In Will & Harper, the most recent collaboration between Ferrell and Steele, the duo hit the highway for a quintessential North American road trip.
Taking turns behind the wheel of Steele’s wood-panelled Jeep station wagon, they drive from New York to Los Angeles in 16 days, combining the classics of the genre – motel rooms, dive bars, diners, truck stops, open roads, karaoke, and drinking shitty beer in parking lots – with an opportunity to bond, exploring what Steele’s gender transition means for their friendship and her relationship with the country she loves, as well as tackling transphobic backlash.
For the first time as a woman, Steele nervously goes into male-dominated spaces that she’s loved her whole life, sometimes finding a tenderness beneath the macho bravado. As they drive across the country, she generously invites Ferrell to ask any questions he wants about her transition to living as a woman. This sparks heartfelt moments – such as when Ferrell begins to understand what kept Steele in the closet for so long, and the suicidal thoughts that resulted – and genuine laughter as the pair joke together: one back-and-forth is initiated when Ferrell asks Steele if she thinks she’s a worse driver as a female. “That’s the dumbest…” Steele responds, before smiling slightly. “But I am.”
The official synopsis reads: “When Will Ferrell’s good friend Harper comes out as a trans woman, they take a road trip to bond and reintroduce Harper to the country as her true self.”
You can read i‘s full review here.
