Will Ferrell has said he “regrets” taking his transgender friend to a Texas steakhouse for their Netflix documentary.
The actor was out with fellow former SNL writer Harper Steele as part of their film about Steele’s recent transition.
Despite generally receiving a warm welcome during their trip, things took a turn for the worse when the duo stopped at The Big Texan steakhouse in Amarillo.
Ferrell arrived dressed as Sherlock Holmes and the two quickly became the center of attention. But the crowd turned hostile when Steele stood up and spoke about trans rights, the New York Times reports.
“The saddest thing for me is… I just feel like… I feel like I let you down in that moment,” a tearful Ferrell said in the film, comparing the situation to living in a ‘fishbowl’.
Will Ferrell has said he ‘regrets’ taking his transgender friend Harper Steele (pictured together at the table) to a steakhouse in Texas for their Netflix documentary
“The room started to feel very wrong to me,” Steele added. “I kind of felt like my transness was showing, I guess, and suddenly it didn’t make me feel so good.”
The crowd reacted even more violently when Steele stood up and gave a political speech, something not seen in the movie “Will and Harper.”
“I’m from Iowa, but I’ll raise a glass to your great state of Texas,” Steele said. “I wish you would do more for trans rights in this state.”
“It died, completely died,” Steele said. “We wouldn’t treat you like that in Iowa.”
Ferrell then added, “Cheers to Texas and trans rights, right?”
Texas has some of the most conservative laws on transgender rights, including a ban on gender-affirming care for children, as well as rules that force teens to use specific bathrooms and ban transgender girls from playing on sports teams that match their gender.
Ferrell was wearing his Sherlock Holmes costume, which only added to the madness around them
Steele recalled how the crowd became hostile after he stood up and gave a speech about the need for greater trans rights in Texas
The actor was out with fellow former SNL performer Harper Steele as part of their film “Will and Harper,” which explores Steele’s recent transition.
More recently, the state banned transgender Texans from updating their gender on their driver’s license or birth certificate.
Ferrell explained that he and Steele stopped by the restaurant to participate in the 72oz steak challenge.
But the crowd’s reaction immediately left Ferrell feeling remorseful.
“I mean, the atmosphere was so bad because, to put it bluntly, there was a trans woman in there,” he explained.
‘I didn’t really have an idea of how intense it was going to be and felt responsible for not properly vetting the situation we were in.
“That felt like it was going to be a benign place where you eat a big steak in no time, and then you walk in and there’s a thousand people sitting in this room and I’m like, ‘Oh, why are we here? ?’
Ferrell and Steele met on the set of SNL in the 1990s and quickly became friends
“I wish I would have walked in and said, ‘No. This is going to be terrible. Let’s just go.’ I felt remorse and guilt for even going there.”
The negative reactions continued on social media, where the couple was inundated with hateful comments.
However, Steele didn’t seem to regret making the documentary.
“There is a process underway to normalize queer people in America, and this film does that. It makes the trans experience more understandable,” he said.
Ferrell and Steele met on the set of SNL in the 1990s and quickly became friends.
Steele became head writer and in 2020 the friends co-wrote the Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga.
Steele came out as a trans woman in 2022 at the age of 61.