Actor Will Ferrell claims “transphobia” comes from people “not being confident” in themselves.
The 57-year-old comedian spoke to The Independent on Thursday about his recent Netflix documentary “Will & Harper,” which follows Ferrell and former “Saturday Night Live” writer Harper Steele as they travel across the country and explore Steele’s gender transition.
Ferrell said he previously had no knowledge about the transgender community but has since learned about the dangers of transphobia.
“There is hatred out there,” Ferrell said. “It’s very real, and it’s very unsafe for trans people in certain situations.”
He also suggested transphobia emerged because “we fear what we don’t know.”
“But I don’t know why trans people are meant to be threatening to me as a cis male. I don’t know why Harper is threatening to me,” Ferrell said.
He added, “It’s so strange to me, because Harper is finally… her. She’s finally who she was always meant to be. Whether or not you can ultimately wrap your head around that, why would you care if somebody’s happy? Why is that threatening to you? If the trans community is a threat to you, I think it stems from not being confident or safe with yourself.”
The film’s director, Josh Greenbaum, told The Independent that while he intended the film to be apolitical, there was an intentional effort to reach a more “bro-y” audience with Ferrell.
“It’d be disingenuous not to point out that we were aware of the reach that Will Ferrell has,” Greenbaum said. “The fanbase he has crosses all spectrums, but it also has a very traditionally straight, cis-male, bro-y [element]. On some level, for sure, we want to reach that audience. But it was very important to me, and to Harper, that we were also representing the queer community.”
Steele remarked that sometimes transphobia can come from left-wing media as well.
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“’The New York Times’ is kind of the center of that – generally left-leaning, but also sometimes very anti-trans. It’s odd…” Steele said to The Independent. “It’s why I first tend to ask reporters who interview me if they believe in me. Do they believe that I exist? That I’m valid? Because that’s not always part of the conversation. I like to start there. Because there are many people in the liberal community who can’t seem to get their heads around it for one reason or another.”
“Will & Harper” premiered on Netflix Friday.
