“Saturday Night Live” alum Will Ferrell said he would no longer accept a part that included him dressing like a woman for laughs.
The 57-year-old actor discussed playing Clinton-era Attorney General Janet Reno decades ago during a recent interview with his friend, “SNL” head writer Harper Steele, for an episode of “The Interview” podcast, per Variety.
Ferrell specifically said he regretted participating in the “Janet Reno’s Fantasies” sketch from Season 23 of SNL in 1997.
When the interviewer mentioned that the sketch “hits a false note now,” Ferrell replied by saying, “That’s something I wouldn’t choose to do now.”
“This kind of bums me out,” Steele, who identifies as transgender, said. “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. 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.”
“This is an interesting question to me,” Steele added. “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. 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.”
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The outlet noted that Ferrell recalled “a fair amount” of sketches from “SNL” which would make him “lament the choice.”
The “Anchorman” star also jokingly said, “I mean, in a way, the cast — you’re kind of given this assignment. So I’m going to blame the writers.”
Steele agreed, “Yeah, he’s not culpable at all,” then continued, “I wrote Monica Lewinsky stuff I wasn’t proud of. I wrote some good Britney Spears stuff and some stuff that I’m not as proud of. I wrote some Clinton things I wasn’t proud of. I’m just moving on. I have to.”
Ferrell is promoting his project “Will & Harper,” a Netflix documentary he did with Harper featuring the two of them going on a cross-country road trip.
