Alert – Will Ferrell lashes out at the Academy Awards for snubbing his documentary Will & Harper

Will Ferrell had some fun jokingly taking the Academy to task for not nominating his documentary Will & Harper when he appeared on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert on Wednesday.

The 57-year-old comic actor was on the late-night talk show to promote his new Reese Witherspoon collaboration You’re Cordially Invited, but he opened his segment by comically lashing out at the Academy Awards for the snub in the best documentary feature category.

‘Ask me if we got Oscar-nominated,’ he slyly asked the host.

‘It’s such a good documentary. It’s one of the best documentaries I’ve seen in years,” Stephen gushed. ‘It was beautiful. It was timely. It was heartfelt. I was inspired by it. How [about] the Oscar nomination?’

‘We didn’t get it,’ Will replied in perfect deadpan.

Stephen replied, ‘F*** the Academy.’

Will Ferrell had some fun jokingly taking the Academy to task for not nominating his documentary Will & Harper when he appeared on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert on Wednesday

Will stars in Will & Harper with his longtime friend, former SNL writer Harper Steele, who came out as transgender in 2021. The two buddies set out on a 17-day road trip across the country as Will tried to learn more about his friend’s journey; still from Will & Harper

‘Ask me if we got Oscar-nominated,’ he slyly asked the host. ‘It’s such a good documentary. It’s one of the best documentaries I’ve seen in years,” Stephen gushed. ‘It was beautiful. It was timely. It was heartfelt. I was inspired by it. How [about] the Oscar nomination?’

Will jokingly added, ‘Especially the doc branch. You don’t want to hang out with the doc branch,’ referring to the group of documentary filmmakers responsible for the documentary categories at the Academy Awards. ‘What a bunch of losers. 

‘In fact, I hope there’s some of them here tonight,’ he added as he turned toward the audience. ‘If you’re a member of the doc branch, suck it.’

Will costars in Will & Harper with his longtime friend Harper Steele, who was a writer on Saturday Night Live and the head writer for the sketch-comedy series from 2004 to 2008. 

Harper, who was assigned male at birth, came as a transgender woman in 2021. 

In an attempt to better understand his good friend’s experiences as a trans person, Will set out on a 17-day road trip with Harper from New York to Los Angeles, which was documented for the film.

Along the way, the two pals met other trans people and had plenty of positive experiences with strangers in rural parts of the country they feared wouldn’t be receptive to Harper.

But they also experienced disturbing incidents of transphobic bigotry along the way while stopping at roadside restaurants and bars. 

The documentary, which was released on Netflix in September, was a hit with critics, earning an impressive 100 percent fresh rating from the most prestigious reviewers surveyed by Rotten Tomatoes. 

‘We didn’t get it,’ Will replied in perfect deadpan, and Stephen replied, ‘F*** the Academy’

Will jokingly added, ‘Especially the doc branch. You don’t want to hang out with the doc branch,’ referring to the group of documentary filmmakers responsible for the documentary categories at the Academy Awards. ‘What a bunch of losers’

‘In fact, I hope there’s some of them here tonight,’ he added as he turned toward the audience. ‘If you’re a member of the doc branch, suck it’

On Will and Harper’s road trip, the two pals met other trans people and had plenty of positive experiences with strangers in rural parts of the country they feared wouldn’t be receptive to Harper; still from Will & Harper

But they also experienced disturbing incidents of transphobic bigotry along the way while stopping at roadside restaurants and bars; still from Will & Harper

They also had a run-in with Indiana’s Republican Governor Eric Holcomb, who politely asked for a photo with Will, shortly after he had signed a bill banning gender-affirming care for minors; Will and Harper seen in September in NYC

During their trek through the Midwest, the two comedy buddies made a stop in a suburb of Indianapolis to catch an Indiana Pacers game. 

While at the game, the state’s Republican Governor Eric Holcomb stopped by to request a photo with Ferrell. 

He was apparently polite to the duo, despite having signed a bill banning gender-affirming care for minors in the state earlier that year, which the two comedians later wished they had confronted him about.

‘I will say that, when you walk into a bar or basketball game with Will Ferrell, people tend to want to be kind,’ Harper later said during an appearance on Late Night With Seth Meyers. ‘We have an uncomfortable moment with the governor of Indiana, who is not very kind of trans people, but he needed to take a picture with Will so bad that he dropped all of his principles. And that, to me, is what Will does for me.’

Holcomb later defended himself and his ‘moral code’ in a statement to the Indiana Capital Chronicle.

‘Will introduced me to Harper and explained her journey. Had Will asked me then, I would have said, as an adult, that’s your call, you be you. I don’t however think children should be permanently/irreversibly changing their biological sex as children,’ Holcomb said. 

‘I only wish Will and Harper peace and happiness in their future pursuits,’ he added, before citing some of his favorite Will Ferrell movies.