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When trans woman and longtime comedian Harper Steele walked into a hostile-looking Oklahoma bar, what happened next shocked everyone.
One fateful day in 1995, future Hollywood A-lister Will Ferrell, 57, arrived at New York’s NBC studios (aka 30 Rock) to walk the hallowed Saturday Night Live halls that the who’s who of the comedy world has passed through at one point or another.
Here, he met Harper, 63, then a young comedy writer who shared an instant spark with Will. One that has stood the test of time over the past three decades.
Then, during the pandemic, the Anchorman star received an email from Harper in which she revealed she was a trans woman and wanted him to know as she started living life as her authentic self.
After his instant acceptance, Will was left not only with questions about Harper’s identity but what it meant for their friendship. Did she still like the same beer and truck stops? Would their comedic chemistry remain the same or be inexplicably changed?
And so the dynamic duo set off on a cross-country road trip – documented in the new Netflix film Will & Harper – filled with constant riffing, the usual dingy haunts Harper knows and loves and a tender vulnerability rarely seen by the Hollywood elite.
After 30 years of friendship, Will Ferrell and Harper Steele still have so much to learn about one another (Picture: Netflix/Everett/REX/Shutterstock)
In the two-hour documentary, the pair revisit significant places in Harper’s life, from a sports game in Indianapolis to her childhood home in Iowa City, as they confront the reality of navigating often Republican spaces as a trans woman.
There are plenty of tense moments, including a strained steak dinner in Texas which they pulled out from early, and an unwitting interaction with an anti-trans governor.
But there is one moment during filming (which produced over 240 hours of footage that had to be ruthlessly chopped) that has stayed with director Josh Greenbaum long after he cut the cameras.
‘I think the moment that hit me hardest while we were filming was when we went to the bar in [red state] Oklahoma,’ Josh told Metro.co.uk after the UK premiere of Will & Harper.
He continued: ‘I walked in [and] there was a confederate flag, there was some political signage that made me feel that this was not going to be a safe environment. But Harper insisted she wanted to go in on her own.’
Director josh Greenbaum remembers one moment that resonated with him (Picture: Getty)
There’s no doubt about the initial hostility in the air – with ‘f**k Biden’ and pro-Trump posters scattered on the walls – as Harper tests the waters and the patrons emanate an intense curiosity only the hardiest of people would be able to bear for long.
But then a switch flipped – and everything changed.
‘She went in and …read more
Source:: Metro
