Will Ferrell says doing drag on SNL for laughs is something he 'wouldn't do now'

Will Ferrell and his longtime friend (and former Saturday Night Live head writer) Harper Steele are traveling across the country in the new documentary Will & Harper, getting reacquainted with each other after Steele came out as a trans woman.

The documentary, in theaters tomorrow, sees Ferrell learning a lot about the lives of trans people through the experiences of his best friend, and it's made him look back on his career in a new way.

Ferrell and Steele were being interviewed by The New York Times when Ferrell was asked how he felt about sketches where he played former Attorney General Janet Reno.

"That's something I wouldn't choose to do now," he said.

Steele agreed, saying she wouldn't write that kind of sketch today.

"No, I wouldn't write it again and I don't think it's right. I have always thought punching down was wrong. What I have been discovering, like most of us, is that we were punching down sometimes when we didn't think we were."

"I understand the laugh is a drag laugh," she 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, she did emphasize that she doesn't think straight performers should be banned from gay roles, or that they are automatically problematic.

"With performers and actors, I do like a sense of play. 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?" she said. "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 way some of the range that performers, especially comedy performers, can do."

Ferrell said that the Reno sketches weren't his only regret on the show, but joked that it wasn't his fault.

"I'd have to go back and review shows, but I'm sure there'd be a fair amount where you'd lament the choice," he said. "I mean, in a way, the cast – you're kind of given this assignment. So I'm going to blame the writers."

"There were a few times even while seeing the sketch mounted, I would go, ugh," Steele added. "I think that is a fear-based thing where you feel like you've got to please an audience or you're losing your job, and you make a decision that is not – I probably felt a lot of fear, imposter syndrome. I might have overstepped bounds."

Will & Harper is in theaters tomorrow and will stream on Netflix starting September 27.