Tommy Dorfman on 'I Wish You All the Best': 'I Hope It Feels Like a Hug'

Tommy Dorfman is adding a new title to her already stacked résumé.

Dorfman, 33, exclusively spoke with Us Weekly on Monday, October 27, at the New York Premiere of her directorial debut, I Wish You All the Best, at the IPIC Theater and Club Bohemia at Gitano. She told Us she hopes the film “feels like a hug.”

“When I grew up I didn’t have social media to even build trans community, and we have so much access to that in the real world, but I still hadn’t really seen a nonbinary character in a film in cinema centered at the heart of the story in a story like this,” Dorfman told Us. “So my hope is that you can do less work trying to compartmentalize yourself to relate to cis characters and you can find some ease watching a movie like this with Ben’s story and synergy and you can just really enjoy the ride.”

The film, which is set to release in limited theaters beginning on Friday, November 7, is based on the 2019 novel of the same name by Mason Deaver. The story follows Ben (Corey Fogelmanis), a nonbinary teen who is kicked out of their home after coming out to their parents. Ben moves in with their older sister, Hannah (Alexandra Daddario), and her husband, Thomas (Cole Sprouse), as they start on a journey of self-discovery, building new friendships and relationships along the way.

The 13 Reasons Why alum said she was immediately hooked by the book.

“I was obsessed with Mason’s book and the characters in it really spoke to me in a way that I couldn’t have ever imagined like a teen book would when I was 27,” Dorfman said. “I think I was just reliving high school as this nonbinary kid finding themselves and falling in love and having that much information about who they were and confidence about that, just needing the right people to support it.”

The photographer and writer told Us she had previously written other screenplays, but there was something crucial about this story needing to be told.

“This felt like the one that was most urgent and most pressing to tell, so I just immediately after optioning the book went right to the page,” Dorfman said. “[I] wrote 20 drafts, spent years developing it and then on the side of directing it, it wasn’t something that I had initially thought anyone would let me do, but as I was writing it, it became very clear that maybe I was the only person who should. I think there’s a lot of similarities between Ben and I. I grew up in the South as a trans kid, and I just had a really clear vision for it that I think was real enough on the page that they let me get behind the camera. And now I’m directing my second film, so that’s cool. I start shooting on Thursday.”

Despite the film being shot years ago, Dorfman says it’s more relevant now than ever.

“I think a movie like this couldn’t be more valuable and more prescient than the time we are living in. We are really on the tipping point of what feels to me like a major terrifying pit that we will all get lost in if we don’t act soon and act now and find more compassion and love and support for each other,” Dorfman said. “So I feel really, really grateful that this movie is coming out even though the world right now is so dark and terrifying, I think people need a movie like this, they need a hug like this more than anything else right now. And yeah, my hope is that it does shift hearts and souls and minds, and it’s also just a really good movie to watch with your family and your friends. It’s like a good time.”