Will Ferrell has admitted he had "zero knowledge" about the trans community but his best friend of 30 years has helped educate him after she came out.
Taking to the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, Ferrell and his longtime friend Harper Steele delved into the origins of their road-trip documentary, Will & Harper.
Having shared a friendship spanning three decades and a collaborative history at Saturday Night Live (SNL), where they both kickstarted their Hollywood comedy careers, Ferrell and Steele's new film unfolds as they embark on a cross-country journey following Steele's public acknowledgment of her identity as a trans woman.
Reflecting on Harper's revelation, Ferrell shared at the Variety Studio: "It was three summers ago in which Harper emailed a lot of her close friends with the headline: 'Here’s a Weird One.'
"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?"
Admitting he had "zero knowledge" about the trans community, Ferrell emphasized the significance of the documentary in shedding light on this unexplored territory. "I had met trans people, but I didn’t have anyone personally in my life," he admitted.
Discussing the conception of the documentary, Ferrell revealed to the Hollywood Reporter: "The conception of the whole discussion, for some reason in my head, was a documentary.
"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?'"
Continuing, he expressed the hope that the documentary would offer a unique perspective and foster meaningful conversations about the journey Steele was undertaking.
"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," Ferrell said.
Harper, speaking on the movie, explained: "It tells the story of a cis friend of a trans person who has to transition himself."
Produced by Ferrell himself, alongside Jessica Elbaum, Rafael Marmor, and Christopher Leggett, Will & Harper is directed by Josh Greenbaum, who also contributed to its production.