Will Ferrell Regrets Dressing In Drag For Laughs On ‘SNL’: “That’s Something I Wouldn’t Choose To Do Now”

While reflecting on some of his old Saturday Night Live skits, comedy legend Will Ferrell admitted there were some things he wouldn’t do again for the sake of comedy, including dressing as a woman.

Ferrell joined his longtime friend and former SNL colleague Harper Steele on The New York Times podcast The Interview to discuss their upcoming documentary Will & Harper , where the comedians went on a cross-country roadtrip to learn more about each other after Steele came out to Ferrell as a transgender woman.

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The pair reflected on one skit in particular that featured Ferrell dressed as Janet Reno, the former U.S. attorney general.

“That’s something I wouldn’t choose to do now,” he said, noting that the concept of dressing as a woman for laughs “hits a false note now.”

Steele admitted that the skit “kind of bums me out.”

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“I understand the laugh is a drag laugh. It’s, ‘Hey, look at this guy in a dress, and that’s funny.’ It’s absolutely not funny,” she said. “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.”

She continued, “This is an interesting question to me. 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.”

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Steele added, “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.”

Steele and Ferrell met while working together on Saturday Night Live , where Steele worked as a writer from 1995 to 2008.

Ferrell admitted that there’s likely “a fair amount” of SNL skits that he starred in “where you’d lament the choice.” He then joked, “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 playfully fired back.

But Steele admitted that she also wrote some SNL skits that she “wasn’t proud of” about Monica Lewinsky, Brittany Spears, and the Clintons. “I’m just moving on. I have to.”

Will & Harper premieres in theaters Sept. 13. It will be available to stream on Netflix Sept. 27.

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