🎧 Will Ferrell and Harper Steele: Friendship Without Limits
🎧 Will Ferrell and Harper Steele: Friendship Without LimitsThe old pals and collaborators tell me about their bonding road trip doc, 'Will & Harper'. Plus: Richard Rushfield's early Oscar predictions
Subscribe on Apple PodcastsFor most anyone else, the sight of a Dunkin’ while stuck in a traffic jam in Flagstaff, Ariz. would have passed unnoticed. For Will Ferrell, it was an opportunity for one of his favorite pastimes of the past 30 years: Making Harper Steele laugh. “I just spotted that Dunkin’ Donuts and I thought, ‘Oh, this is a good bit opportunity,’ and I just threw a fit,” Ferrell says of the recurring gag in the documentary Will & Harper, in which he childishly begs his road-trip companion to take him through the Dunkin’ drive-through. “I could be driving with a number of other friends and people, and I would not do that. I would not. But if I can make her laugh . . .” Ferrell and Steele’s shared sense of humor has indelibly shaped the comedy landscape of the three decades, from their Saturday Night Live collaborations to some of Ferrell’s wildest feature films, from 2008’s Casa de mi Padre to 2020’s Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga. When Steele came out as a trans woman in 2021, Ferrell was immediately supportive, but he also had to wonder: would their bond change now that Harper was living openly as a woman? Would she laugh at the same jokes or, as Ferrell wonders, “Does she still like shitty beer?” Those questions and many others shape Will & Harper, the documentary about the road trip Ferrell and Steele took together from New York to Los Angeles in the spring of 2023. On this week’s Prestige Junkie podcast — which also includes a check-in with Richard Rushfield about the state of the awards race thus far — the two friends dig into the making of the documentary. They share how they worked with director Josh Greenbaum to shape the road trip and act naturally on camera, even if they weren’t so sure it worked out at first. At the end of the journey, Ferrell says, “We were like, we had a really amazing adventure, and we’re putting our feet in the water in the Pacific Ocean going, ‘I don’t think there’s a movie there. I don’t know if there’s anything that really was really compelling.’” The reception for Will & Harper, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in January and will stream on Netflix starting Friday, Sept. 27, has certainly proved Ferrell wrong. Both stars have had dozens of conversations with moviegoers who were moved to share their own stories of their trans friends and families. With anti-trans legislation continuing to be pushed around the country, Steele also sees the potential for her story to have an impact. “I don't want to predict how people are going to receive it, but I like to express and present how optimistically joyful it is to be trans,” Steele says. “If I can keep that message out there, then there may be a father with a trans kid — who likes Ricky Bobby — who can see some way into that conversation with that kid, and how fortunate it is to have that kid.” Follow us: X | Facebook | Instagram | Threads ICYMI
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