Will & Harper: Will Ferrell and Harper Steele’s road trip across America is a beautiful portrait of friendship

Sonny and Cher’s “I Got You, Babe” is an earworm, a tune so familiar that even the first three notes would be enough to get it on a “What’s this song” question at pub trivia.

It’s also very sweet, a simple ditty about being there for someone. Even though Cher and Sonny’s union wouldn’t last, the song did.

When “I Got You, Babe” comes on in Will & Harper, it’s played as an ode to friendship – and more than romantic partners, the vow to be there for a friend through thick and thin is for many people, a stronger pledge.

For Will Ferrell and Harper Steele, it’s a promise.

Ferrell and Steele met at Saturday Night Live in 1995 when Ferrell was a young comedian and Steele was a writer. Ferrell said many people were sceptical about his talents but Steele was always in his corner.

Fast forward almost three decades and Ferrell gets an email from Steele during the COVID-19 pandemic. Steele is transitioning to be a woman named Harper.

A year later, Ferrell and Steele decide to embark on a 17-day road trip driving across America, hitting towns and places that Steele had been to many times as a man but not as a transgender woman.

She is both excited and apprehensive, telling Ferrell that for the first time, she’s “going to see the country that I love as me”.

For Ferrell, it’s a chance to share in an experience with his friend, and also discover what changes are there to the dynamic of their friendship now that Steele isn’t the “same person” as she was. Will it be a more honest one?

They set off from New York City where one of the first stops is the studios of Saturday Night Live, walking the hallways and stalking the rooms that were so formative to both their careers. They conspire ahead of time to give its creator Lorne Michaels a hug too long.

They also have dinner with SNL legends Tina Fey, Paula Pell, Seth Meyers and Tim Meadows plus current cast member Colin Jost, all of whom are identified by Steele as being incredibly supportive when she first came out as transgender.

But it’s not all showbiz, although there are later appearances from Kristen Wiig, Will Forte and Molly Shannon. The goal was to see how “middle America” reacted to Steele in their midst.

There are moments of joy, such as in bar in Oklahoma and other places where it doesn’t feel as safe, such as a steak joint in Texas, or supportive, when they meet the governor of Indiana, Eric Holcomb, who has signed into state law a swathe of anti-transgender legislation.

Because Steele is with Ferrell the Hollywood star and a camera crew, there is rarely the tension of physical jeopardy, but an emotional one is always present. There are times when she is addressed as “bro” or “sir”, which either she or Ferrell correct on the spot.

Then there is the vitriol on social media reacting to their presence – when Ferrell shows up courtside at a basketball game or at that Texas restaurant, phone and TV cameras are whipped out. The comments are hostile and hateful, playing into damaging tropes against transgender women.

That’s the real game in Will & Harper, going on this journey with someone who spent the better part of six decades never feeling OK with herself to the point of some very dark thoughts about self-harm. Now, she is contending with how she feels about herself when it comes to beauty, loneliness and acceptance.

To be open about who she is, but never forgetting all the pain that came before, it’s incredibly generous to invite the audience to share that story. J.K. Rowling and her ilk could do worse than watch this.

There are genuinely affecting moments, ones where Ferrell is moved to tears to know that about his long-time friend and the waves of empathy he has towards Steele. He is also able to ask questions that might be off-limits in a public arena.

Will & Harper is a beautiful portrait of friendship and humanity.

He’s got you, babe.

Lifeline: 13 11 14