Will & Harper (Netflix) are Will Ferrell and Harper Steele, who once worked together on Saturday Night Live and became close long-term friends. Until the age of 61, though, Will’s friend was known as Andrew Steele.
Harper’s transition from male to female was announced to certain friends via email. When Will got his, he proposed the two of them take the kind of road trip his friend has always liked. As Peter Debruge, Variety, suggests, documenting this on film “gives the general public a chance to meet this incredible woman. Technically, Ferrell is meeting her for the first time, too, since Steele spent the first six decades of her life as a man.”
Along the way not only do they have encounters with strangers that range from comfortable to not-so-much, they have interactions with mutual old pals from their SNL days, e.g., Tina Fey, Colin Jost, Seth Meyers, Tim Meadows, Kristen Wiig, Will Forte, and Molly Shannon.
One issue that gets conveyed about Harper’s process, notably, is the lack of acceptance and/or understanding she experienced with a therapist she was seeing, though Harper did eventually find someone better. Later Will and Harper happen to meet a retired therapist who admits she also didn’t do well by a former client with trans issues. It’s an unfortunate reality that many trans individuals have seen clinicians who are either ill-informed or unfavorably biased.
Selected Reviews
Brian Tallerico, Rogerebert.com: “This one is really about friendship, and it is remarkably moving on that level. Harper Steele is extremely brave, sharing her journal entries and speaking about pits of despair that she was in regarding her gender identity….There’s a pure, true companionship here that should serve as a reminder to call that person in your life who might need someone to talk to. Sometimes even the people we think we know best may just need a friend to listen to them, laugh with them, and eat Pringles with them.”
Peter Debruge, Variety: “As trans allyship goes, Ferrell sets one heck of an example, sitting courtside with Steele at a Pacers game or correcting strangers when they misgender his amiga. Everything they do together is a learning experience for Ferrell and anyone watching who feels uncertain how to deal with trans people. Still, this down-to-earth trip will likely prove even more important for a different audience — namely, those with gender dysphoria issues of their own, who see in Steele a role model. Coming out can be incredibly scary, and Steele is eloquent and open about her fears.”
Kristy Pushko, Mashable: “As [Harper] grows more comfortable on the road, she yearns to step outside of Ferrell’s bubble of celebrity protection…(O)ne very public outing results in sneers and bigoted backlash online, in which both Steele and Ferrell are denounced, though Steele more grotesquely. This is the low point in the narrative, one the film asks us to take somberly, which the friends do as well, reflecting on what such reactions mean about America and Steele’s life going forward.”
