Billy Porter makes his directorial debut with the groundbreaking new romantic comedy Anything’s Possible, out Friday on Prime Video.
The film follows confident teen Kelsa, who is a transgender girl, as she navigates her senior year and her crush on her artsy classmate.
Porter says that his film calls back to the coming-of-age classics while also doing something completely new. “When I grew up, I was obsessed with the John Hughes genre,” he tells ABC Audio.
“I had to superimpose myself onto all those white people. When I read this script, I knew instantly that this was a genre that needed to be revisited for the modern era, and that’s what we set out to do,” Porter says.
He wasn’t alone in searching for himself on screen. Actress Eva Reign, who plays Kelsa in the film, recalls the time she spent looking for a movie just like this one.
“I spent so much time scrolling through Tumblr and Instagram trying to find some movie or show, and I just wasn’t seeing myself anywhere,” she says. “This film is literally what me and a lot of my friends talked about wanting to see.”
At the end of the day, even with all that time spent wishing for a movie like this, Porter says he didn’t feel any pressure in making it.
“When you’re simply living inside of your truth and walking that path, the pressure is released. There was more pressure on me when I was trying to be straight,” he says. “There is no pressure now, because all I’ve got to do is show up and be myself.”
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