Will Ferrell says he wouldn't dress up as a woman for a joke again

Times change, people change, and comedy changes, as evidenced by Will Ferrell reflecting on some of his old sketches back on Saturday Night Live. When The New York Times brought up a bit where he dressed as then-attorney general Janet Reno, Ferrell acknowledged, “That’s something I wouldn’t choose to do now.” In fact, there’s probably “a fair amount” of old sketches “where you’d lament the choice,” he admitted, before joking, “I mean, in a way, the cast—you’re kind of given the assignment. So I’m going to blame the writers.”

One of those writers in his SNL days was his good friend Harper Steele, who recently came out as a transgender woman. Their friendship and how it evolved post-transition is the subject of a new documentary Will & Harper. Steele agreed in the interview that there’s “stuff I wasn’t proud of” from that period, including bits about Monica Lewinksy, the Clintons, and Britney Spears. But “I’m just moving on. I have to,” she said. 

Regarding Ferrell dressing as a woman for a sketch, Steele said, “This kind of bums me out. I understand the laugh is a drag laugh. 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. However, with performers and actors, I do like a sense of play.” She brought up Robin Williams in The Birdcage, noting she’s talked to gay men about his performance as a “swishy gay guy” in that film and some found it funny while others found it hurtful. The comedy writer reflected, “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.”