Will Ferrell Says SNL Drag Sketches Like Janet Reno ‘Something I Wouldn’t Choose to Do Now’

The comedy legend who made a name for himself on Saturday Night Live in the 1990s did so with a lot of outrageous costumes, characters, and impressions. One of those performances incorporated all three, but even Ferrell doesn’t think it’s aged all that well.

Chatting on The New York Times’ The Interview podcast with a longtime friend and SNL colleague, former head writer Harper Steele, Ferrell expressed his thoughts about his at-the-time outrageously popular Janet Reno impression.

“That’s not something I would choose to do now,” Ferrell said on the podcast, saying that his characterization “hits a false note now.” That false note hits two ways, with the joke being on both masculine-presenting women, and the old comedy crutch of men in drag.

Steele, who came out as transgender 30 years into her friendship with Ferrell, seemed to be cooler with the impression than Ferrell, telling him on the podcast, “This kind of bums me out.”

Janet Reno was the former United States Attorney General under President Bill Clinton. She was appointed to that position in 1993, becoming the first female to hold the office, and held it until Clinton left office in 2001. She was brutalized in the press, often cruelly for her lower speaking voice and more masculine-presenting demeanor.

These were the aspects that Ferrell leaned into for his own portrayal, dropping his voice to an even lower pitch and moving awkwardly and stiffly as his Janet Reno attempted to appear cool to younger people.

For her part, Reno appeared to take the impression in stride, telling The Washington Post, “I thought it was just kind of a spoof of this 6-foot-1 big old girl. I can’t figure out why anybody’s that interested in me.”

She even appeared on the show during one of his “Janet Reno’s Dance Party” sketches to confront his impression head on — an SNL trope to be certain.

“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,” Steele said on the podcast with Ferrell. “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 led Steele to muse how films like The Birdcage and stars like Robin Williams are received in the LGBTQ+ community, and by gay men in particular. “He spent about half of his comedy career doing a swishy gay guy on camera,” she noted. “Do people think that’s funny, or is it just hurtful?”

She said she’s heard from gay men on either side, which leaves her pondering — as many comedians do — how comedy should respond to these changing times in general.

“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,” she said.

At the same time, both she and Ferrell agreed that some of the content from their time at SNL hasn’t aged particularly well, with Ferrell saying “there’s a fair amount … where you’d lament the choice.”

At another point, he joked that the cast is “kind of given the assignment. So I’m going to blame the writers.” Steele countered, “Yeah, he’s not culpable at all.”

She went on to note, “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.”

After coming out as transgender in 2022, Steele and Ferrell moved on to exploring their evolving friendship with a cross-country road tip in their film Will & Harper, dropping September 27 on Netflix.