Showcasing a beautiful tale of friendship, this year’s Sundance Film Festival saw the premiere of the heart-touching documentary Will & Harper. As the title suggests, the people under the spotlight are celebrated actor/comedian Will Ferrell and his good friend, Harper Steele. The two have known each other for almost 30 years. They also worked together on Saturday Night Live.
Harper Steele came out as transgender two years ago. Variety reports that she worked as a writer for 13 years, i.e., from 1995 to 2008. The aforementioned documentary saw the duo go on a road trip. The project was emotional, and hilarious and received a spectacular standing ovation.
According to Deadline, the synopsis of Will & Harper reads, “When Will Ferrell finds out his close friend of 30 years is coming out as a trans woman, the two decide to embark on a cross-country road trip to process this new stage of their relationship in an intimate portrait of friendship, transition, and America.”
Will & Harper was directed by Josh Greenbaum, who is best known for directing Barb and Star Go To Vista Del Mar, Strays, and Too Funny to Fail, among others. However, this documentary is seeking distribution out of the Sundance Film Festival.
What is Harper Steele best known for?
As per IMDb, Harper Steele is known for having worked on Saturday Night Live, Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga, and The Spoils of Babylon. Sportskeeda reported that she is not just a writer but also a producer and has worked as an additional crew member.
For Saturday Night Live, she wrote 249 episodes, which spanned from seasons 21 to 41. Notably, her contribution to SNL earned her a Primetime Emmy in 2002 and four Writers Guild of America Awards. Steele also wrote multiple episodes on Funny or Die Presents…. (2010-2011), The Spoils Before Dying (2015), and The Jon Stewart Show (1993-1995).
Talking about the latest documentary, Harper Steele said that her confidence increased after she transitioned, Deadline reported. She even added that working with Ferrel on the documentary helped her in the process. Steele shared, “What the doc did for me was give me a little more confidence as a trans woman. I will say you probably don’t want to be overly confident.”
She ended her statement by saying, “I’m still a little leery of what I would do in my 20s and 30s when I was performing male, but I think I am a lot more confident and I think this documentary helped me immensely in that sense.”
In addition, Will Ferrell said that the project increased his knowledge about the transgender community and helped him understand his friend better. He said, “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.”
According to GQ, Steele knew that her transitioning was a process waiting to happen for a long time. She even had depressive thoughts that appalled her to keep a gun in the house. However, following her transition, all she has wanted to do is “live.”
