To Make ‘Will & Harper,’ Will Ferrell and Harper Steele Turned to a Tangled Network of Old Friends and Collaborators: ‘This Was a Family Affair’

variety.com:

Brent Lang Executive Editor “All five of us met at an orgy,” Harper Steele deadpans while gesturing to the core team behind “Will & Harper,” the new Netflix documentary about a consequential road trip she took with BFF Will Ferrell after coming out as a trans woman.

And Ferrell, his eyes sparking with punchlines to come, seizes the opportunity to build on the bit. “We didn’t remember that we had met until much later,” he says. “We’re like, wait — Acapulco?” At that, Ferrell scrunches up his face like one of those suburban dads he’s so famous for playing on-screen and lowers his voice as if something embarrassing had slowly dawned on him.

They’re joking about the sex party, of course, but the group behind “Will & Harper” does boast a tangled network of connections that extend back through the decades, one that includes marriages, longtime friendships and artistic partnerships.

It culminated in a film that will have its New York premiere less than 24 hours after we meet in a tiny green room above the Paris Theater. “This was a family affair,” Steele says. “We couldn’t have done something so personal in any other way.” Take Ferrell and Steele, who spend the bulk of “Will & Harper” driving across America’s deserts, prairies and mountain ranges while talking about Steele’s experience as a trans woman in a country she loves but worries doesn’t “love me back right now.” They met in 1995 at “Saturday Night Live” — Ferrell had just joined the ensemble as part of a major cast shake-up, and Steele had been hired for the writing staff. “We became best friends,” Steele says softly while smoothing out her dress.