An Iowa Native is the Subject of Will Ferrell’s New Documentary
A new documentary from Will Ferrell's team has been popular on Netflix since it dropped last month. I finally sat down to watch the film last night, and was caught off guard by its primary subject being from Iowa. There's even a whole segment set in Iowa City and other small Midwest communities.
Let me catch you up: the new documentary Will & Harper chronicles the 17-day road-trip Will Ferrell and comedy writer Harper Steele took across various, mostly small-to-medium towns in the United States. What makes this documentary particularly noteworthy is that it's the first time Ferrell is meeting his friend "Harper," who recently transitioned from a man to a woman.
Ferrell and (formerly) Andrew Steele met on the set of Saturday Night Live. In Will & Harper, it is revealed their friendship formed as Ferrell perceived he was getting the cold-shoulder from other comedians on the set of the show, who didn't find him funny. Steele knew he wasn't "a dud," and would write sketches tailored to Ferrell's awkward, stilted, and shouting cadences. He became a fan favorite, and well, his career really doesn't need an introduction.
One of the many beautiful revelations throughout the nearly-two hour documentary is the fact that Harper Steele has deep roots in Iowa! Steele grew up in Iowa City, the child of two University of Iowa professors. After attending Iowa City High School, she graduated the University of Iowa with an English degree.
There's even an extended chunk of the film dedicated to Ferrell and Steele driving through the Iowa countryside before returning to her hometown. I won't spoil how it involves a unicycle.
In the film, she tells some new acquaintances in Oklahoma that she would've happily stayed and lived her life in Iowa if there was money to be made. For Steele, however, showbusiness was calling, so she uprooted her life and moved to New York, where she got her start on Saturday Night Live.
Since then, she co-wrote the Tim Meadows-led comedy The Ladies Man, worked on several Ferrell projects under his Funny or Die website, and wrote Ferrell's Spanish-language comedy Casa de mi padre in 2012.
The crux of Will & Harper is that, after coming out about her gender transition in 2022, Harper expressed a desire to revisit places she enjoyed going as a man now as a woman. She's a proclaimed lover of "shitty beer" (Natural Light is her favorite), and loves the bowels of America: dive-bars and greasy spoon eateries.
It was Ferrell who conjured up the idea not only to go on a road-trip with his friend to all these places, but also take it upon himself to learn more about the trans community from one of his closest colleagues. Ferrell's presence helps ease Steele's concerns about traveling through conservative states with restrictive laws against trans people.
Whether it's Iowa City, Peoria, IL, Meeker, OK, or an Indiana Pacers basketball game, Steele is mostly met with warmth and kindness from strangers. Of course, Ferrell is instantly recognizable and draws a lot of eyes wherever he goes. There's a sequence in the documentary at a Texas steakhouse that turns awkward, even quietly hostile, when guests begin pulling out their phones and documenting Ferrell's dinner with Steele, which predictably led to hateful comments directed towards the comedian's friend/collaborator.
You can learn more about Harper Steele and her Iowa connection on her Wikipedia page. Check out Will & Harper on Netflix too.
"The Rocky Horror Picture Show" in Davenport Hosted by Nell Campbell
Gallery Credit: Steve Pulaski