Will Ferrell Regrets Visiting Awkward Texas Restaurant After Co-Star Turns Up For Trans Wright Toast

Actor Will Ferrell says he regrets his visit to a Texas restaurant after his trans co-star, Harper Steele, received awkward reactions from diners.

It happened while Ferrell and Steele, a former “Saturday Night Live” head writer, were filming their new Netflix documentary, “Will & Harper,” which follows their 17-day road trip across the country to “bond and reintroduce Harper to the country.” ” in 2022 as his true self after Steele comes out as transgender.

The New York Times reported what they described as an unexpected and uncomfortable reaction from diners at a Texas restaurant after Steele mentioned it.

“I'm from Iowa, but I'll raise a glass to your great state of Texas,” Steele told a receptive audience of diners at the Big Texan Steak Ranch in Amarillo, where Ferrell and Steele planned to try the restaurant's famous 72. Ounce Steak Challenge.

“I hope you do more for trans rights in this state,” Steele added, which was met with muted cheers and a few groans from the audience, the Chron reported.

“Cheers to Texas and trans rights, huh?” Ferrell added. The toast didn't make it into the documentary, but Steele and Ferrell shared their reactions afterward.

“The room is starting to feel very wrong to me,” Steele said in the film. “I was feeling a little bit like my transness was on display, I guess, and suddenly that kind of made me feel great.”

“The saddest part for me is … I feel … I feel like I let you down in that moment,” Ferrell said in response.

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“I really had no idea how intense it was going to be and felt responsible for not properly assessing the situation we were putting ourselves in,” Ferrell told the New York Times. “It felt like it was going to be this benign place where you eat a big steak for a period of time, and then you walk in and there's a thousand people sitting in this room and I was like, 'Oh, why are we here??'”

Harper Steele and Will Ferrell (Getty Images)

Steele described the feeling of being “on display” at that moment.

“We gave a little toast, and I said something about passing a trans bill, and the room kind of flipped and went a little crazy and a woman yelled, 'We still love you.' I hate the phrase,” Steele said. “I could be completely misinterpreting this woman, but my feeling in this room was: 'yet' is conditional. You still love me when I finally give up being trans and give my life to Christ. They still love me. Even though I'm a bit of a sinner. or felt something.”

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“I wish I'd gone in and said: 'No. This is going to be terrible. Let's just go,'” Ferrell said in response. “I was feeling regret and guilt going there.”

Steele previously criticized the New York Times in an interview independent “Usually left-leaning, but sometimes very anti-trans. It's weird…”

Will Ferrell and Harper Steele attend the Will & Harper NY Special Screening at Paris Theater on September 24, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Roy Rochlin/Getty Images for Netflix)

“That's why I first ask reporters who interview me if they trust me,” Steele added in that interview. “Do they believe I exist? That I'm legitimate? Because that's not always part of the conversation. I like to start there. Because there are a lot of people in the liberal community who can't get their heads around it for one reason or another.”

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Ferrell also said that “transphobia” comes from people “not being confident in themselves”.

“There's hate,” Ferrell told The Independent. “It's very real, and it's very unsafe for trans people in certain situations.”

“It's so weird to me, because Harper is finally… hers,” he added. “Ultimately he's what he was always meant to be. You can wrap your head around it or not, why do you care if someone's happy? Why is that a threat to you? If the trans community is a threat to you, I think it's with yourself. is due to not being confident or secure.”

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Fox News' Lindsay Cornick contributed to this report.