Will Ferrell Regrets Dressing As A Woman On ‘SNL’

Will Ferrell has admitted he regrets dressing up as a woman on Saturday Night Live.

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The actor and comedian starred in the Janet Reno’s Fantasies sketch in season 23 of the NBC variety show in 1997/98, in which Ferrell was dressed as the deceased attorney general.

In an interview with The New York Times‘ The interview podcast, Ferrell said, “That’s something I wouldn’t do now.”

He further said that he is confident that there is “a fair amount” of sketches of his SNL tenure “where you regret the choice,” before joking, “I mean, in a way, the cast — you’re kind of given this assignment. So I’m going to blame the writers.”

Former SNL Head writer Harper Steele also expressed regret over Ferrell’s sketch, adding, “This makes me a little sad. I understand that 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. But with artists and actors, I like a sense of play.”

Steele, who came out as transgender in 2022, then spoke about Robin Williams and the 1996 film The birdcage in which the late actor and Nathan Lane played a gay couple.

“This is an interesting question to me. Do queers like The birdcageor not? Robin Williams, as far as we know, was not gay, and yet he spent about half of his comedy career playing a gay man on camera,” Steele said.

“Do people find it 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’m a woke, purple-haired guy, but I wonder if we sometimes take away the joy of performing when we take away some of the reach that performers, especially comedy performers, can have.”

In 2021, Lorne Michaels previously said that Ferrell was one of the three best cast members ever to star in Saturday Night Live.

The sketch comedy creator hired Ferrell in 1995 and the two worked together on the show until 2002.

He said: “I never rank, but Will is definitely in the top two or three who’s ever done the show. There’s no doubt about that.”

When describing Ferrell’s very specific brand of comedy, Michaels explained, “There’s an expression, ‘Some people are just overflowing.’ When you’re funny, there’s a neediness, an anger, and a lot of other things that go along with it.

“What Will does is focused, and there’s always something charming and fun about it.”

Meanwhile, Ferrell will DJ set with Swedish House Mafia next month in Chicago to raise money for Cancer For College.