Comedy actor Will Ferrell said he “made it clear” to Netflix that he wanted his newly released pro-transgender documentary “Will & Harper” available for streaming prior to the 2024 election.
The 57-year-old stars in the project alongside his friend, former “SNL” head writer Harper Steele, who identifies as transgender. “When Will Ferrell’s good friend Harper comes out as a trans woman, they take a road trip to bond and reintroduce Harper to the country as her true self,” the official Netflix description says.
Now, the “Anchorman” star acknowledges the film’s release date was very intentional.
“When we sat down with Netflix we made it clear that we wanted this out before the election,” Ferrell told Variety at the film’s premiere. “We wanted it to have enough runway for people to get to see it and hopefully start having important discussions in their living rooms.”
Steele chimed in, saying that many “parents and kids” are excited to see the movie.
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“We’ve heard from people who say they can’t wait to see this with friends and family who maybe don’t share the same viewpoint and they’re looking forward to watching it all together,” Ferrell continued. “Hopefully it could slowly chip away at some of that.”
Ferrell recently told The Independent that “transphobia” exists because “we fear what we don’t know.”
“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,” Ferrell said.
“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.”
“There is hatred out there,” the actor said. “It’s very real, and it’s very unsafe for trans people in certain situations.”
The film’s director Josh Greenbaum told the outlet that the film wasn’t necessarily meant to be political.
“We were all aware that it would be received as a political film and brought into the political conversation,” Greenbaum told the outlet. “But at its core it’s a very pure, simple story of two friends.”
