Will Ferrell and Friend Harper Steele Talk about Transphobia
Will Ferrell: ‘I don’t know why trans people are meant to be threatening to me’ https://t.co/PL9fFByfkF
- The Independent (@Independent) September 26, 2024
In a new interview with The Independent while doing promo for his upcoming documentary (Will & Harper), Will Ferrell is asked why transphobia exists. "I think we fear what we don’t know."
"There is hatred out there. It’s very real and it’s very unsafe for trans people in certain situations. But I don’t know why trans people are meant to be threatening to me as a cis male. I don’t know why Harper is threatening to me. It’s so strange to me, because Harper is finally... her. She’s finally who she was always meant to be. Whether or not you can ultimately wrap your head around that, why would you care if somebody’s happy? Why is that threatening to you? If the trans community is a threat to you, I think it stems from not being confident or safe with yourself. Well, that’s my lame answer."
Will Ferrell and Harper Steele have been friends since they met in 1995 on Saturday Night Live. Steele was a writer who clicked with Ferrell's brand of humor which led to them collaborating. 30 years into their friendship, Steele came out to Ferrell as transgender. Their new documentary (which is currently streaming on Netflix) documents the pair traveling going on a roadtrip together and rediscovering their friendship.
Director Josh Greenbaum acknowledges that the documentary is rather apolitical. "We were all aware that it would be received as a political film and brought into the political conversation but at its core it’s a very pure, simple story of two friends. I think more hearts and minds can be changed and affected by that. In the climate we’re in now, if you smell an agenda, or you sniff out that someone is trying to convince you of anything, you lose half the audience. In no sense were we trying to avoid politics, but it didn’t feel central to the story we were telling."
When asked if she's conscious of "polite liberal transphobia" as the doc only showcases rural bigotry, Harper Steele answers, "They’re in the background of my head, personally. I’m certainly hearing that voice in my country. The New York Times is kind of the centre of that - generally left-leaning, but also sometimes very anti-trans. It’s odd... It’s why I first tend to ask reporters who interview me if they believe in me. Do they believe that I exist? That I’m valid? Because that’s not always part of the conversation. I like to start there. Because there are many people in the liberal community who can’t seem to get their heads around it for one reason or another.
“We just wanted to address what it’s like for two people who are friends - what all of this means to us, and to our friendship moving forward. I needed him to see the joy I was experiencing. And I also wanted to demonstrate to my friend here that I was still funny. And probably funnier than him.”
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