Will Ferrell Shares The 'Transition' He Experienced After His Best Friend Came Out As Trans

Will Ferrell embarks on a cross-country road trip with a decades-long friend in his new film, but viewers anticipating a buddy comedy might be surprised and moved by the end result. 

Will & Harper, which premiered Monday at the Sundance Film Festival , has been billed as an intimate portrait of friendship, transition, and America. The documentary follows Ferrell as he reconnects with longtime pal Harper Steele, who reintroduced herself as a trans woman in 2022, while traveling from New York to Los Angeles.

Speaking with Variety , Ferrell acknowledged that he had zero knowledge of the trans community when Steele first began living as her true self. The pair met as professional collaborators on Saturday Night Live , which Steele wrote for from 1995 to 2008. 

I had met trans people, but I didnt have anyone personally in my life, the Barbie actor 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. Its a chance [for] 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.

Filmmaker Josh Greenbaum followed Ferrell and Steele for 17 days and compiled more than 250 hours of footage for Will & Harper before editing the documentary down to a suitable running time. 

The film also boasts an ending credits song written by fellow SNL veteran Kristen Wiig , who, incidentally, worked with Greenbaum on the 2021 comedy Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar.

For me, it was a chance to transition myself, in a way to learn, to get to know my friend even more than I knew her before, to get to ask these questions that I think a lot of cis people still have, for me to struggle on camera with asking these questions, Ferrell said in a video interview with Deadline . And then there are a couple emotional moments where Im struggling with making sure I stand up for my friend in moments that felt tense for us and feeling like I fail at times. 

Echoing those sentiments was Steele, who said participating in Will & Harper boosted her confidence in living authentically. 

It was only my second year of transition, and I thought this would help me dissipate some of the nervousness around it, she told The Hollywood Reporter . Walking around with a big shot like Will was gonna be helpful to me.

A wider release date for Will & Harper has not yet been announced. The film, however, has already made a favorable impression with critics at Sundance, with The Daily Beasts Kevin Fallon writing : Its incredibly entertaining, and emotional in a way that only a documentary made with such authentic, all-in intention could be.