I Wish You All The Best Director & Star On Telling A Story With Authenticity [SXSW]

Identity and belonging are the themes at the heart of the new drama I Wish You All The Best, which recently made its debut at the 2024 South by Southwest Festival. Based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Mason Deaver, the film focuses on a teen whose entire world is thrown upside down when their parents throw them out of the house after they reveal they are non-binary. Mayfair Witches Alexandra Daddario and Riverdale’s Cole Sprouse star as the sister and her husband who come to the rescue when Corey Fogelmanis’ Ben’s world falls apart. I Wish You All The Best is being distributed by Lionsgate Films.

After their parents react negatively to the news that they are non-binary, Ben must call his estranged sister, Hannah (Daddario) for help. Hannah and her husband, Thomas (Sprouse) take Ben in, and after the disastrous reaction of their parents, Ben decides to keep a low profile, coming out to only one more person; the art teacher at their new school, Ms. Lyons (Lena Dunham). However, a funny and charming student at their new school, Nathan, decides to take Ben under his wing, and with his help, along with friends Sophie and Mel, Ben is on a road to discovery that will lead from disaster to a happier, and healthier new life.

Screen Rant interviews filmmaker Tommy Dorfman and star Corey Fogelmanis at SXSW where they were promoting I Wish You All The Best. The pair talked about the importance of telling non-binary and queer stories in film, and how it can be a useful tool for understanding and accepting not only those transitioning but the people in their lives.

Adapting & Casting I Wish You All The Best

Screen Rant: Tommy, you wrote and directed this movie, based on a book. How did you find it? What inspired you to take on this tale?

Tommy Dorfman: A friend of mine sent me the book. At the time, I was identifying as non-binary. I was acting, and originally it was like, “Would you want to act in this or not?” It landed on my desk that way, but the minute I read it, I was like, “I have to make this movie.” I’m from the South, and I felt so deeply connected to Ben and their journey. I saw it so clearly. At the time, I was already working on other screenplays and preparing myself to transition from acting to more directing and writing. It just was the perfect project to do that with.

Ben is a character who comes out to their parents as non-binary, and it doesn’t go so well. They move in with relatives to find people who are going to support them, and they find themselves along the way. Corey, tell us a little bit about how you related to Ben.

Corey Fogelmanis: Yeah, I think there’s a very clear journey in the movie of learning not to hide yourself, and to be honest with yourself about who you are, what you want, and what feels comfortable. There’s something about being honest with other people about that as well, and I think that’s something that I have gone through bouts of trying to navigate.

It’s also such a universal thing, whether it comes down to identity or just what summer camp you want to go to. Being honest with people is important. But you don’t want to let people down, and I think when it comes to parents and friends and yourself, it’s not the easiest thing. I was really excited to go on this journey as Ben, and I think I came out of it on the other end a little more more sure of myself, a little freer, and a little more empathetic to everybody. Because everybody’s going through stuff, right?

Tommy, what was your search like to find Ben? Casting was so vital here.

Tommy Dorfman: It really was. I feel grateful that I am also an actor because I didn’t need anyone to prove that they could do it, per se. I was really open to seeing a wide range of talent for all of the roles, frankly. And of course, having someone who’s so professional, and also so grounded, and so talented as Corey is like winning the lottery. It really was this experience of seeing auditions come through and seeing different versions of Ben.

When I saw Corey’s tape, it was so clear to me. The grasp that Corey has on the character was just so grounded, and it was exactly what I had written. That was the first time I’d ever heard words that I’d written read out loud, honestly, which was strange and exciting at the same time. I think it was just really clear to me, and to have somebody who could really go on Ben’s journey, but also be vulnerable enough to let the audience tag along felt really important.

The Courage To Tell I Wish You All The Best’s Story Honestly

Corey, tell us a little more about how you grew as an actor, and as a person playing this role. As I mentioned, it would be a heavy load for any actor.

Corey Fogelmanis: Yeah, it was the first time for me to be on all day every day. I learned a lot about stamina and endurance. Drink lots of water, that’s my number one tip. What you said about being vulnerable enough to share the journey, I don’t know that I really thought about it like that. I feel like it’s kind of setting me up for a bit of fear now, because when we were filming, it was just so insular, and I was just so in my own world. It’s scary to share yourself with an audience, but I look back on it and I’m like, “Okay, I went all in, and I’m grateful that I did that.”

Tommy Dorfman: It takes a lot of courage to act period, and I think it was my job on set to not make people feel like they were bleeding out of their body in every scene. I give people the environment to do their best work, whether that’s department heads, or actors, or anyone in the crew, frankly. For them to feel like safe enough to just ground themselves in the story that we’re telling, and that really being the central focus.

I was grateful that I had such an incredible cast and crew who were able to be quiet and just be attentive and stay moment-to-moment in this journey. And everyone’s really there for Ben, at the end of the day.

I think it’s really a film that’s going to draw a lot of reactions, with people of any age connecting to it, relating to it, and also learning from it. What do you think are the biggest misconceptions about non-binary people that this film addresses?

Tommy Dorfman: I think people who aren’t non-binary or queer-identified in some way, or people who don’t necessarily know that many queer people, can often separate themselves from an experience. It felt important for me — as a trans person and as a queer person who spent many years of my life out as non-binary, advocating for the right pronouns and things of that nature — to show that it’s quite a human experience, at the end of the day.

Everybody is transitioning in some version of their life. People are transitioning in and out of jobs, in and out of marriages, in and out of cities — and Ben is just existing as a 17-year-old trying to understand what it means to think about stepping into adulthood. What does autonomy look like? What does independence look like? It’s a lot of these themes that I think are incredibly universal for audiences. As much as this film is going to mean to the queer community and to non-binary kids who haven’t seen themselves reflected before, I think it’s going to mean just as much to cis straight people who can find inspiration in somebody being their authentic selves, finding confidence, and learning how to trust your community and trust other people to bolster you if you’re down.

It’s funny because, working in the entertainment industry in these coastal cities, we can be in our own bubbles. Then you watch a story like this and see that parents in this country are still reacting [negatively] to kids when they come out as trans or queer or non-binary. How far do you think we’ve come, and how far do you think we still have to go when it comes to acceptance in this country?

Tommy Dorfman: I think when this book came out, we were in very different circumstances, politically and culturally. We’re living in a time now where there have been hundreds of anti-trans legislation bills passed, and the judicial system currently in this nation is sort of a hotspot of all of those things. In many ways, there’s been more oppression, which makes films like this more necessary and vital to exist out in the ether.

I do believe, universally, there is this acceptance that we might feel in coastal cities. I think there’s a larger population of people who are not discriminatory against queer and trans individuals. We still have a long way to go, of course, and to me at the core of any kind of change or revolution is vulnerability. It’s letting people in and letting people be good, too.

Working With Alexandra Daddario & Cole Sprouse Was “Amazing”

Corey, let’s talk about the actors who play your welcoming relatives. They gives you some amazing costars, Alexandra Daddario and Cole Sprouse. What was it like to work those two?

Corey Fogelmanis: Yeah, it was amazing. We started pretty much with the three of us in our first week, so I was very overwhelmed. My head was spinning, and Cole as such a grounding, light-hearted presence. He always has some funny thing to say, so I feel like our dynamic mirrored that of Ben and Thomas.

And Alexandra? I wish that I got to work with her more. There’s a limited number of scenes, but I feel she has this whole world going on inside of her. She can turn a one-page scene into three minutes. It feels like three minutes, just watching her. I felt so lucky. I felt like I just learned so much.

Also very memorable appearance from Lena Dunham. Can you talk about how Lena came into the picture?

Tommy Dorfman: It being my first film, I wanted to also bolster myself with people in my life that I love and friends of mine. We had this character of an art teacher who also needed to be a therapist, who needed to be all of these things, and honestly we just lucked out. Lena had read versions of the script, had mentored me in various ways, as a filmmaker and as an actor in my life. I was at her wedding; we’re very close friends, and the timing worked out that she just happened to be in LA, for the days in which we were shooting this role.

I called her, and I was like, “Would you come play with us? I think this is so much, in essence, you and also your mother. You’ve been such a safe space for me and my transition. I think you have this organic quality.” All these actors [do]. Alex is incredibly maternal, and Cole is incredibly understanding and curious, which I think Thomas is. I think casting to me is finding the essence and seeing where people meet, and Lena is so quirky and smart and caring and nurturing, but also a tough love kind of person. So, I felt really, really lucky getting to work with her in that way.

Music Is Integral To I Wish You All The Best

Also, great music. Can you talk a little bit about the music for this?

Tommy Dorfman: Thank you, Brad Oberhofer is a genius. We talked a lot about composition, and how music can help the audience tap into Ben’s journey and different themes. I also brought in artist friends of mine to make songs, like Charlotte Lawrence made a new song that’s in the movie, and then I also tapped into like older bands that I grew up with, like Indigo Girls.

But I would have to say, since we are in Austin, Ben Kweller, is a singer-songwriter. It’s the 20th anniversary of this album he made called Sha Sha when he was a teenager. I listened to the song “Thirteen” by Ben Kweller so much when I was making the movie, and I tried to get it in the movie.

Corey Fogelmanis: I was gonna say, the music was great in the film, but we have a three-hour playlist that you made and sent out. Everybody got to collaborate, and what was really cool about filming with music was that each song on the playlist came to mean something to me. We could play the song, and then it would be transporting me to this one aspect of the character. I liked that, and I kind of learned that from you. I’ve started to use that in my work now; making playlists.

Tommy Dorfman: I kind of directed with music. When there wasn’t dialogue, we’d have these long scenes. I like to shoot long takes, so we’d have these 7-to-10-minute long takes where we’d do different things in the bedroom, and I would change the songs and see sort of how Corey as Ben reacted to that.

The song “So Sad So Sexy” by Lykke Li just was the song we were playing in that one scene, and I don’t want to give away too much, but that song is in the movie. It was the one song that, when we wrapped, I was like, “We actually have to have this song because it feels so integral to the choreography of this moment in the film.”

Source: Screen Rant Plus

I Wish You All the Best (2024)

Based on Mason Deaver’s novel, the film follows Ben DeBacker, a non-binary teen who is thrown out of their house and forced to move in with their estranged older sister, Hannah, and her husband, Thomas. Struggling with anxiety, they come out only to Hannah, Thomas, and their art teacher, Ms. Lyons, while trying to keep a low profile at their new school. Ben’s attempts to survive junior year unnoticed are thwarted when Nathan, a funny and charismatic student, decides to take Ben under his wing. With the help of Nathan, and his friends Sophie and Mel, Ben discovers themselves and what started as a disastrous turn of events looks like it might just be a chance to start a happier new life.

Director

Tommy Dorfman

Writers

Mason Deaver , Tommy Dorfman

Cast

Alexandra Daddario , Cole Sprouse , Judson Mills , Corey Fogelmanis , Lisa Yamada , Brian Michael Smith , Lexi Underwood

Runtime

92 Minutes