Will Ferrell may be known for his comedy, but his latest project is quite a departure from the world of laugh tracks.
The Anchorman star is headlining a new documentary on Netflix called Will & Harper that follows Ferrell and his “best friend” who recently transitioned as they traveled across the country.
On Tuesday’s show, Megyn was joined by Party of Women leader and activist Kellie-Jay Keen to talk about how the film attempts to normalize the trans topic amid accusations of so-called ‘trans misogyny’ in our culture.
[Editor’s Note: You can learn more about Megyn’s position on preferred pronouns here.]
The Documentary
In the trailer for the documentary that begins streaming on Netflix September 27, Ferrell explained how one of his closest male friends, Andrew Steele, came out as trans woman Harper Steele in 2022 at the age of 61.
“A long time ago, back when I was at Saturday Night Live, I met a guy who was hired as a writer the same week I was hired. He wrote a bunch of sketches for me and eventually became the head writer of SNL. And over the years, he became one of my closest friends,” Ferrell narrated. “And then one day I got this email, ‘Hey, Will. Something I need you to know. I’ll be transitioning to live as a woman.’”
Ferrell apparently pitched the idea of a roadtrip to Steele and enlisted director Josh Greenbaum’s help. “What if we went on a road trip together, giving her a chance to go into a cowboy bar or whatever places she misses, and I can be by her side and lend support as a friend,” Ferrell asked. “At the same time, it would give us a chance to reconnect, and figure out what this transition means to our relationship.”
Steele, meanwhile, saw the experience as an opportunity to live as a trans person outside of the coastal bubble. “I didn’t just want to come out in places like New York or LA and forever live on either coast,” Steele said. “I love the whole country. It’s my country, and I wanted to feel a little safer being in it. And I thought that going across the country with Will Ferrell would help me.”
The trailer showed Steele being called a “bro” in a bar in Texas before Ferrell corrected the offender and explaining the insecurities around going to events at racetracks and the like. “I used to come out to these kinds of places before. And then I transitioned and I got a little afraid,” Steele said. “You know what I’m saying.”
‘Trans Misogynist’
In Megyn’s view, Ferrell’s involvement in the project signals the latest step in the quest to “mainstream” trans ideology. “I’m so sad about this because who doesn’t love Will Ferrell? He’s a comedian. He’s spent his whole life trying to make us laugh, and he’s very good at it,” she explained. “It’s on Netflix no less… which is a very popular platform that most of our kids have access to.”
Steele and Ferrell take a trip in the documentary to the writer’s old high school to talk to kids about transitioning and gender affirming care, and Keen was willing to bet much was left out of that discussion. “What won’t be discussed is how his wife felt about it, how his children felt about it, the coercive control that often goes along with it, and all the really dangerous stuff,” she noted. “But hopefully this will show it up for what it is, which is a really pernicious, self-indulgent ideology.”
Megyn noted there is a new term for those who are “not accepting that Andrew is Harper and a woman” – ‘trans misogynist.’ Keen said she is not bothered by it. “I’ll go with ‘uber trans misogynist’ if it means I can just speak the truth,” she said. “It’s a made up word. It makes absolutely no sense. It’s a way to silence women, and we are the most likely to go along with this kind of insincere empathy.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Keen by tuning in to episode 882 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.