Television Academy voters have until Wednesday night to finish up their ballots that will determine this year’s winners of Primetime Emmy Awards.
There’s intense competition in the documentary categories, especially in Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series and Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special. Last week on Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast, we welcomed the director of Simone Biles Rising and the director of Pee-wee as Himself. Today, we turn our attention to Will & Harper, which has five Emmy nominations (tied for the most of any nonfiction contender) and Deaf President Now!, the latter film directed by Nyle DiMarco and Oscar winner Davis Guggenheim.
DiMarco, who is deaf, and Guggenheim, who is hearing, tell us how they created a unique sound and visual landscape for their documentary to immerse viewers in the Deaf experience. Their story rewinds to the 1980s when Gallaudet University – the higher education institution in Washington, DC – became the locus of dramatic student protests that ended up changing American culture.
Later in the episode, we’re joined by Josh Greenbaum, director of Will & Harper, and Harper Steele, the former SNL head writer who is one of the two key participants in the film. It’s a road movie that follows Harper and her dear friend Will Ferrell as they travel America at the suggestion of the comedic actor. Ferrell proposed the journey so they could reconnect after Steele came out as trans.
Greenbaum and Steele share highs and lows from the trip, one of the lows being a visit to a restaurant in Texas when the atmosphere took a dangerous turn as diner patrons displayed increasing animus towards Will and Harper.
One of the highs: Kristen Wiig singing “Harper and Will Go West,” the song she co-wrote for the documentary. The harmonic effort has earned the SNL alumna an Emmy nomination, alongside song co-writers Greenbaum and Sean Douglas. Harper tells us (jokingly) why she will be furious if Greenbaum wins an Emmy for Outstanding Original Music & Lyrics (however, if he wins for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special, that she may forgive).
That’s on the latest edition of the Doc Talk podcast, hosted by Oscar winner John Ridley (12 Years a Slave, Shirley) and Matt Carey, Deadline’s documentary editor. The pod is a production of Deadline and Ridley’s Nō Studios.
Listen to the episode above or on major podcast platforms including Spotify, iHeart and Apple.
