During a recent conversation with The New York Times alongside his longtime friend Harper Steele, Will Ferrell revealed the one iconic Saturday Night Live character which he “wouldn’t choose to do now.” Ferrell and Steele are promoting their upcoming Netflix documentary, Will & Harper.
Ferrell was referring to his interpretation of Janet Reno, the United States’ first female attorney general, in a recurring sketch entitled “Janet Reno’s Dance Party,” which debuted during the 1997–’98 season. A parody of then-popular MTV countdown programs, the bits find Reno hosting ‘90s teenagers for a mosh pit-turned-fight club in her basement. They were some of Ferrell’s most well-remembered sketches during his tenure, though he thinks they have failed to stand the test of time as some of his other characters have.
After the Times noted that the Janet Reno character “hits a false note now,” Ferrell admitted: “That’s something I wouldn’t choose to do now.” The Anchorman star conceded that there are “a fair amount” of sketches in which he participated during his time on SNL “where you’d lament the choice.”
Steele, who came out as transgender 30 years into her friendship with Ferrell, admitted that his friend’s drag performance in the Janet Reno sketches “kind of bums me out.”
However, Steele added that the issue is complicated as it pertains to comedy. “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,” he said. “However, with performers and actors, I do like a sense of play.”
The sketch’s primary joke frames Reno as hyper-masculine, aggressive, and often violent figure who berates young women. The unbelievably convoluted sketches inevitably conclude with Reno physically fighting a political rival. As Ferrell notes, tastes have changed with the times.
Later in his discussion with NYT, Ferrell jokingly tried to wriggle out of blame for some of the more objectionable sketches. “I mean, in a way, the cast—you’re kind of given this assignment,” he said. “So I’m going to blame the writers.”
Will & Harper debuts Sept. 27 on Netflix.
