Reflecting on some of his past work on Saturday Night Live, Will Ferrell now says he would no longer entertain performing in drag for comedy.
In an interview on New York Times podcast The Interview with longtime friend and former SNL head writer Harper Steele, Ferrell expressed regret over the "Janet Reno's Fantasies" sketch from Season 23 of the show, in which he dresses as the eponymous attorney general
"That's something I wouldn't choose to do now," Ferrell said of the sketch, while Steele added, "This kind of bums me out."
"I understand the laugh is a drag laugh," Steele continued. "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."
"This is an interesting question to me," Steele continued. "Do queer people like The Birdcage, or do they not? 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 shared on The Interview how he's certain there's "a fair amount" of sketches from time on SNL "where you'd lament the choice," later joking "I mean, in a way, the cast — you're kind of given this assignment. So I'm going to blame the writers."
"Yeah, he's not culpable at all," Steele responded before reflecting, "I wrote Monica Lewinsky stuff I wasn't proud of. I wrote some good Britney Spears stuff and some stuff that I'm not as proud of. I wrote some Clinton things I wasn't proud of. I'm just moving on. I have to."
Steele came out as transgender 30 years into her friendship with Ferrell. Later this month, their relationship will be explored in new documentary Will & Harper, which follows the two on a road trip across America.
Following the film's premiere at Sundance earlier this year, Ferrell recalled how Steele emailed close friends to announce her transition. "We were all of course excited to hear the news and surprised to hear the news," he told Variety. "All of us were extremely supportive and expressed love … but that sort of opened the questions like, how can we help you? What do you need us to do?
"I had met trans people, but I didn't have anyone personally in my life," Ferrell said. "So this was all new territory for me, which is why I think this film is so exciting for us to kind of put out there in the world. It's a chance for all of us in the cis community to be able to ask questions and also just to listen and be there as a friend to discuss this journey."
Will & Harper arrives on Netflix September 27, and you can watch its trailer below.