Harper Steele hopes seeing Will Ferrell in “Will & Harper” gives people 'roadmap on how to engage' with LGBTQ friends

The "SNL" alums also hope the new Netflix documentary shows "there's still space out there for people to evolve."

Will & Harper is a documentary full of surprises.

The basic premise follows the 16-day, cross-country road trip between comedian and actor Will Ferrell and longtime friend and fellow Saturday Night Live alum Harper Steele. After nearly 30 years of friendship, Steele came out as a trans woman to Ferrell and the two decided to embark on the journey to rediscover their friendship, and Steele could rediscover the country and locales she loves — this time as herself.

The surprises come by way of run-ins with everyday people from all walks of life and comedy legends alike (think Tina Fey, Seth Meyers), making for a medley of interactions heartbreakingly emotional and hilariously relatable, but above all, unflinchingly honest. But despite all of that, and the other little twists and turns along the way (who knew there were so many bad flavors of Pringles out there?), Steele and Ferrell say perhaps the biggest surprise was themselves.

"The big surprise was how deep Will and I were able to go, because we've had lots of personal conversations and lots of funny conversations, but we took it to a different level," Steele tells Entertainment Weekly. "And I don't think we went into it thinking that that would happen."

Related: Will Ferrell and Harper Steele on all those SNL cameos in Will & Harper and the 'intensely funny' stuff they had to cut

Adds Ferrell, "Just the exercise of spending six to eight hours a day in a car, and somehow we never were at a loss for something to talk about. And I think we both definitely thought that we wouldn't have bet on that happening. We probably would've been like, well, of course it's just going to be natural that someone wants to take a nap. But it was just... fun."

Of course, it wasn't all fun. As Steele says in the film, she wanted to do the road trip in part because she loves America so much, but isn't sure if it loves her back. And while there are a lot of moments of love and tolerance and acceptance to be had, the doc also doesn't shy away from difficult conversations or learning opportunities between her and Ferrell, or uncomfortable run-ins with strangers or even downright hateful comments from them.

It was important to show all of this, Ferrell says, because, "fear is fueled by ignorance, and if we can lessen some of the ignorance, then I think it lowers the temperature on the fear or the absolute rejection. It doesn't need to be that extreme."

This conversation took place the day after the Sept. 10 presidential debate between Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, in which the former president falsely stated, "Now she wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens who are in prison.” This erroneous word salad — which was widely mocked on social media afterwards — and the rhetoric of the debate in general was top of mind for Ferrell and Steele the next day.

Related: Will Ferrell says dressing in drag for laughs on SNL is something he 'wouldn't choose to do now'

"I think there's a number of people who show up in the doc who express — I keep talking about this — I think we're all dying for just acts of civility. We watched the debate last night and it's like, I think we're just tired of whatever side you're on," Ferrell admits. "And I think this [film] is encouraging to people that there are discussions to be had out there, and that people are willing to listen. And it doesn't mean that there isn't... yes, trans people, queer communities still face a lot of hate. But I think we're showing that there's still space out there for people to evolve. And also too, that just expressing advocacy for our friends, regardless of what they're going through or experiencing, is another potential takeaway from watching this."

The goal, Steele says, is not for people to love her, specifically, more. "I want the film to sort of point a direction towards a way to have this conversation," she says. "We have a lot of these people who don't like trans people who have queer people in their families one way or the other."

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Pointing at Ferrell, who was seated beside her for this interview, Steele adds, "And that would be a great service, if they could watch this funny person show them a roadmap on how to engage with that person. I don't know if it's going to change a lot of hearts and minds, but I hope it does."

Will & Harper is now streaming on Netflix.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.