TORONTO — Will Ferrell is building up a head of steam. Seated in the nondescript hotel conference room that’s been seized for our interview — a setting that lends our conversation the air of “Between Two Ferns” — the actor has taken up the subject of transphobia in Hollywood films like “Ace Ventura” and is running with it. “The entertainment culture has taught us to have a flippant attitude that trans people aren’t real people,” Ferrell says.
“It’s silly. It’s make-believe. Obviously, we’re getting closer to educating everyone—” “Are we?” his friend, former “Saturday Night Live” colleague and now road-movie co-star Harper Steele interrupts, stopping him hilariously short.
Her deadpan is laced with the ring of truth. This is the animating question of their new documentary, “Will & Harper,” which follows the pair on a cross-country road trip as they unpack Steele’s 2022 coming out as a trans woman. Along the way, Ferrell and Steele meet Indiana Gov.
Eric Holcomb, a supporter of anti-trans legislation; connect with the trans community in Peoria, Ill.; suffer hateful trolling in Texas; and experience the unexpectedly warm embrace of dive bar patrons in Oklahoma. Within the structure of an absurdist buddy comedy from the goofballs who brought you “SNL” sketches like “Oops! I Crapped My Pants” and “More Cowbell,” the film, launching Friday on Netflix, offers one of American pop culture’s most successful portraits to date.