Will Ferrell and Harper Steele stop by The Hollywood Reporter's studio in Park City during the Sundance film festival to talk about 'Will & Harper,' a story focused on Ferrell and Steele navigating a new stage in their relationship after discovering Steele is coming out as a trans woman. The actor and former SNL writer dish on their cross-country road trip and the people they met along the way.
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PeopleTranscript
00:00 It was extraordinary that we could get all of our friends to come and participate.
00:05 I have more friends than Matt. No one's debating.
00:08 Should we name the person?
00:10 One of the things that got cut out of the documentary, we counted how many friends each had.
00:16 Okay, do you remember like about...
00:18 Harper has 420 friends.
00:20 Yes, yes.
00:22 And Will. I have 30.
00:24 Will has about 30. A lot of acquaintances.
00:27 I think we both... I'll speak for Harper.
00:36 Please. Please.
00:38 I'll do some mansplaining. I love to speak for Harper.
00:41 Yes.
00:42 No, I think we both feel fortunate that we met a group of people professionally
00:50 throughout our careers early on, continuing to meet people who were
00:54 just quality individuals who are not only good and funny at what they do, but also just,
01:01 you know, a little bit of luck of the draw.
01:04 But maybe because we're so great, we draw those people to us.
01:09 That's where it is. Yeah, I just think the comedy world breeds its own little inner groups,
01:17 you know, people who speak the same kind of joke language and the same kind of comedy language.
01:22 And then you get to know the ones that sit with your sensibility.
01:25 And it is an island of misfit toys. So I think, you know, you do kind of get drawn to each other.
01:30 And then, and the friendships become that much closer because of that.
01:35 I remember Colin Quinn, once we were... it was my first year at Saturday Night Live.
01:40 And he looks out around the room and goes, "Look, it's a room full of class clowns."
01:45 Yeah.
01:46 So all of us were the same person getting to this place.
01:49 And so I think I feel super fortunate to have come upon this group of people.
01:55 The conception of the whole discussion, for some reason in my head, was a documentary.
02:01 And of course, I made it clear to Harper, like, I don't want to exploit our friendship, but
02:09 this could, I think, be just a wonderful way for us to explore this topic.
02:16 Obviously, for me to learn, ask all the questions that I have about what you're going through,
02:24 and who you are, have you changed?
02:29 And I think we eventually landed on the same square that
02:32 if we actually could convince someone to film it, that maybe it would be something that people
02:39 would watch and it would just give them a different perspective or just show off the fact that two
02:45 people can have a conversation about this.
02:47 I had two reasons for doing it.
02:49 One of them was, it's kind of selfish.
02:52 It was only my second year of transition, and I thought this would help me
02:58 dissipate some of the nervousness around it.
03:01 Walking around with a big shot like Will was going to be helpful to me.
03:06 Thank you.
03:06 Yes, that's the last of it.
03:09 We had both knowingly and unknowingly made lists of things we wanted to ask each other.
03:15 So those moments were like, here's something I'm going to ask you.
03:18 That was like me checking the next thing on my little black notebook I had with me.
03:23 And Harper was doing the same.
03:24 It's 17 days, it's 16 hours a day.
03:28 It's over 250 hours of footage that was called down to a little less than two hours.
03:33 But the moments that stick out, I think, when I think back are the remarkable
03:41 moment of the young kid on the unicycle coming up as Harper was just discussing
03:49 going to school, riding around town, being featured in the newspaper on her unicycle.
03:55 And as we had that discussion, we found out later, this person was also a trans, young trans.
04:04 That moment really was like a serendipitous kind of thing of like,
04:11 oh, this is worthwhile.
04:14 We're having all these interesting experiences along the way.
04:17 The other moment that I know we've discussed is the moment at the Grand Canyon, which
04:22 not only is kind of an amazing cinematic moment, but we come across the couple.
04:30 Was it the therapist?
04:30 Yes, who's a retired therapist who wants to ask Harper some questions about her transition.
04:37 And then Harper actually gets to help her kind of work through some issues that
04:44 she back in her practice felt ill-equipped to advise someone who was going through the
04:50 same situation.
04:51 And that was such a just powerful, full circle moment that happened, obviously,
04:58 on the spot.
05:00 So those are two of my favorites.
05:02 What is a movie, classic movie or television show that you have...
05:07 It's A Wonderful Life.
05:08 ...pretended to have seen?
05:09 Have you ever seen any things I've done?
05:12 No.
05:12 Never.
05:15 All right.
05:17 I had a really embarrassing moment when Henry White, Henry Hill.
05:24 Henry Hill.
05:24 Henry Hill.
05:25 Someone was talking about how they were going as Henry Hill for Halloween.
05:28 No, no.
05:29 Oh, Hank Hill.
05:31 No, Henry... the meth show.
05:34 Oh.
05:34 Everyone's favorite show of all time.
05:35 Breaking Bad.
05:36 Breaking Bad.
05:36 John Carroll was here earlier.
05:38 Wait, but who's Henry Hill?
05:39 Henry White.
05:40 Walter White.
05:40 Walter White.
05:41 See?
05:43 I've never seen Breaking Bad.
05:45 But I almost did that to Henry.
05:46 I almost was going to nod along with Henry Hill.
05:47 So, surprise, surprise, I've never seen Breaking Bad.
05:50 [laughter]
05:52 But someone said they were dressed as Walter White.
05:55 I'm like, "Oh, that's great.
05:56 I've never seen that."
05:57 [laughter]
05:59 That's Walter White.
06:01 Bye.
06:02 [BLANK_AUDIO]