Billy Porter is a quadruple threat if ever there was one. He sings, he acts, he writes, and now he’s making his directorial debut on Amazon Prime’s Anything’s Possible, the trailer of which has just dropped.
Starring Eva Reign and Abubakr Ali as teen lovebirds Kelsa and Khal, the coming-of-age rom-com is re-imagining what love can look like on-screen for a transgender girl in high school. Following a wave of optimistic LGBTQ+ romance stories for teen audiences like Netflix’s Heartstopper and Disney Plus’ Crush, Anything’s Possible is bringing the fun and butterflies of teen love to everyone’s television screens.
Amazon Prime Video describes the film as a Gen-Z “romance that showcases the joy, tenderness, and pain of young love,” despite gender identity or sexual orientation, as two kids with a crush navigate the highs and lows of their senior year of high school.
In addition to being directed by Porter, an out and proud gay man who has been rewriting Hollywood history for decades, Anything is Possible is written by bigender screenwriter Alvaro García Lecuona. Their script, initially titled What If? was featured on the 2019 #GLAADList and the 2020 Black List. Anything’s Possible also stars a transgender actress making her film debut in Reign. The movie translates Hollywood’s recent attempt to right its wrongs and places actual queer people at the helm of queer projects.
With a cast of young, mostly unknown actors, the biggest commercial pull of Anything’s Possible comes from Porter’s involvement. The 52-year-old actor’s resume is vast and bright. From theater and Broadway to his iconic portrayal of Pray Tell in FX’s Pose and, most recently, his take on Cinderella‘s Fabulous Godmother, Porter has become one of the most celebrated and successful queer actors in Hollywood. Anything’s Possible marks his directorial debut, but certainly not his last.
“Let me do one thing at a time. Let me direct something first. Then I’ll direct something and be in it too.”
Porter in an interview with Variety.
Anything’s Possible was a particularly fitting project to introduce Porter to the world behind the cameras since it was filmed in and around his hometown of Pittsburgh. The first-time director describes the film as “an aspirational story,” with a fairytale quality to it. Although not reflective of most trans kids’ experience in high school, Anything’s Possible is “a look at what we can be,” Porter said. “That’s what we as artists get to do — look at what we can be and what we should be,” he added.
Lead actress Eva Reign didn’t have a high school journey like her character Kelsa’s either. She told Variety, “I have not been back to my high school since I graduated. I was like, ‘Peace. I’m out. You know, it’s been real, but I’m a little tired.’”
Anything’s Possible is a look at what a more accepting world could look like for the next generation of LGBTQ+ teens with a crush. It arrives on Prime Video July 22.
