Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart’s comedy Get Hard opens in theaters on Friday, and the film started off on a sour note after several viewers and critics pointed out its underlying racism and homophobia following its premiere at last week’s South By Southwest Film Festival. Variety wrote that Get Hard was “undone by some of the ugliest gay-panic humour to befoul a studio release in recent memory,” causing Ferrell to admit that the goal of R-rated comedies is to poke and prod at controversial “attitudes and misconceptions that already exist.”

In the controversial film, which marks Tropic Thunder screenwriter Ethan Cohen’s directorial debut, Ferrell’s hedge fund manager character seeks help from an acquaintance (Hart) to prepare him for maximum security prison. A majority of the comedy in Get Hard rests on the Ferrell character’s fears of being raped in prison, and a critic for The Guardian noted that future viewers “will be astonished that such a negative portrayal of homosexuality persisted in the mainstream in 2015.” During a Q&A with Cohen following the film’s South by Southwest premiere, two members of the audience asked if the film intentionally perpetuated negative stereotypes.

Cohen, Ferrell and Hart initially cancelled several scheduled press interviews for the film after seeing how much controversy Get Hard had stirred up, but as more and more headlines bashing the upcoming film began to emerge, Ferrell and Hart finally stepped forward to defend the film. 

“Any time you’re going to do an R-rated comedy, you’re going to offend someone,” Ferrell told the Associated Press. “But that’s kind of what we do. We provoke. We prod. We also show a mirror to what’s already existing out there. We’re playing fictitious characters who are articulating some of the attitudes and misconceptions that already exist.”

Hart told the Associated Press that the film is supposed to be considered a satire about people who judge each other by their cover. Ferrell’s character is a parody of the narrow perspective of the elitist one percent, and he hires Hart’s simple family man because he’s black and has thus likely been to prison. Hart added that he and Ferrell are “no strangers to criticism,” and that despite his career success, none of his films have ever earned great reviews.

While the negative hype surrounding the film threatens to hurt its box office performance, Get Hard producers Adam McKay and Chris Henchy revealed in a recent phone interview that they aren’t concerned.

“People will go see it and there probably will be some people who are offended,” said McKay, adding that while Get Hard is definitely harsh and very dirty, it’s “a good-hearted movie at its root.”