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Will Ferrell Says Dressing In Drag For Laughs On SNL Is Something He

Will Ferrell Says Dressing In Drag For Laughs On SNL Is Something He “Wouldn’t Choose To Do Now”

In a new interview to promote the just-released documentary Will & Harper, Will Ferrell and his friend and frequent collaborator Harper Steele say that they are rethinking some of the comedic choices they have made in the past…

Will Ferrell dressed as a woman during numerous throughout the years in various Saturday Night Live sketches — and he has no interest in returning to that type of comedy.

Ferrell and his friend and frequent collaborator Harper Steele said in a new The New York Times interview that they regretted some SNL material as their worldviews have evolved. For example: When asked about repeatedly playing former Attorney General Janet Reno on the show, Ferrell responded, “That’s something I wouldn’t choose to do now.”

Ferrell said that the Reno sketches weren’t his only regret on the show, but joked that it wasn’t his fault.

“I’d have to go back and review shows, but I’m sure there’d be a fair amount where you’d lament the choice,” he said. “I mean, in a way, the cast – you’re kind of given this assignment. So I’m going to blame the writers.”

Steele, who wrote for SNL from 1995 to 2008 and recently came out as trans, expressed her own regret about the sketch in the same interview. “No, I wouldn’t write it again and I don’t think it’s right,” she said. “I have always thought punching down was wrong. What I have been discovering, like most of us, is that we were punching down sometimes when we didn’t think we were.”

“I understand the laugh is a drag laugh,” Steele said, as she reflected on the specifics of why the Janet Reno sketches (and other drag-based sketches) feel uncomfortable. “It’s, ‘Hey, look at this guy in a dress, and that’s funny.’ It’s absolutely not funny. It’s absolutely a way that we should be able to live in the world.”

Steele clarified that she doesn’t believe queer people as the subject of straight performers’ comedy is always automatically problematic. “With performers and actors, I do like a sense of play,” she said. “Robin Williams, at least as far as we know, was not a gay man, and yet he spent about half of his comedy career doing a swishy gay guy on camera. Do people think that’s funny, or is it just hurtful? I’ve heard from gay men that it was funny, and I’ve heard from gay men that it was hurtful. I am purple-haired woke, but I wonder if sometimes we take away the joy of playing when we take away some of the range that performers, especially comedy performers, can do.”

Ferrell and Steele have been on a press tour as part of the promotions for the new documentary Will & Harper that sees the pair travelling across the country and getting reacquainted with each other after Steele came out as a trans woman. The documentary also shows Ferrell learning about the lives of different trans people through the experiences of his longtime best friend.

Will & Harper is in theatres on September 13 and will start streaming on Netflix on September 27. You can read IN’s review of the documentary right here and watch the trailer below:

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