From director Billy Porter, the high school coming-of-age rom-com Anything’s Possible follows Kelsa (Eva Reign), a trans girl who’s confident in who she is and who lives a vibrant life with her supportive single mother (Renée Elise Goldsberry), and her classmate Khal (Abubakr Ali), who has a crush on her. While Khal gets the courage to ask Kelsa out, he must learn to follow his heart, even when others question his actions.

During this interview with Collider, co-stars Reign and Ali talked about why they felt honored and privileged to help tell this story, shooting the dance montage, why it’s important to show supportive families like these, whether they feel that anything’s possible in their own lives, and what they’d like to do next.

Collider: There are so many layers to this movie. It’s a rom-com, it’s a high school story, and it’s a family drama. When it came to this script and this story, what was it that most stood out for you and made you want to be a part of telling this story?

ABUBAKR ALI: The beautiful question of the piece for me was, how do you, as a “marginalized person,” balance both your desire to live freely and live with joy in relation to others’ perception of what your experience should be? How do you navigate that, as a young person, in relation to something as simple as love? For a high school rom-com, that’s a beautiful, rare question to bring up and something that we never get to see. It felt like a privilege to be a part of that.

EVA REIGN: Definitely. I feel so honored to help tell this story. I’m always searching for mirrors of self, in all different forms of media. When I found this script, I was trying to break into the industry, but the beautiful thing about this story is that it is a story of love and a story of joy. I didn’t think that I would really get to play a happy character. I thought that any sort of trans character that I played was gonna be filled with trauma and despair and grief, and this is the total opposite of that. The thing is, in everyone’s lives, there are highs and there are lows. We’ve seen so many lows, when it comes to narratives around Blackness, around trans-ness, and around even being Muslim. We haven’t seen a lot of joyous narratives that aren’t attached to trauma. There’s always so much trauma. I think everyone deserves to see something dreamy and fun and light and happy. That’s what this story was, and that’s why I wanted to jump into it.

I really loved the dance montage at the end of the movie because it feels like it brings everything back to that feeling of celebration, after everything these characters go through. What was it like to shoot that? Was that a lot of fun to do? Did you have to rehearse a lot for that?

REIGN: We actually didn’t rehearse that much. We had a very short rehearsal.

ALI: It felt like three hours. It may have only been 20 minutes. I’m a terrible dancer.

REIGN: Abu’s lying. He’s actually an amazing dancer. We had literally gone through this whole dance and he was like, “Oh, I can’t dance.” Suddenly, he did some sort of ballet move and I was like, “Are you serious? Why didn’t you work that in?” I was very nervous walking into that dance. I hadn’t really danced in that way since I was like much younger. Suddenly, (director) Billy [Porter] brought out all of these Broadway veterans, who had worked with Janet Jackson and Fosse, and they were like, “Girl, you’re our lead, so you better hit it. Okay, 5, 6, 7, 8.” I’d like to think I did a decent job. I had fun with it, but I was quite stressed out.

ALI: When we shot it, it was initially supposed to be at the beginning of the film. Unfortunately for me, I felt deeply lazy that day. I was like, “Hmm, it feels like my character is not quite out of his shell yet. He hasn’t spent time around Kelsa. He’s still quiet and soft spoken, holding onto himself, so I don’t know if he’d dance.” The extent of my dancing was me, waving my arms.

REIGN: Abu got out of it. Meanwhile, I was working in freakin’ six-inch heels. I did that.

ALI: She was amazing.

I love the parents of both of your characters. You both have such beautiful family moments in this. What did you guys most enjoy about those relationships with your movie moms?

REIGN: I really loved being able to show a Black mother and her Black trans daughter having a positive bond. When we think of trans people, whether they’re white, Black, or whatever, the world likes to frame things in this way of, “No one’s going to love a trans child. No one’s going to be accepting of that.” The thing is, my mom totally loves me. My mom was at the premiere of this film. She’s always been my best advocate. Sure, we had some tension growing up, but that was just out of the fear that she had for how the world was going to treat me. That same thing can be shown in this film. Kelsa and her mom have some tension, but that’s all born out of a lot of fierce love, and we haven’t really seen that shown. We haven’t seen that discussed much, so I’m happy that we got to do that.

ALI: Both families, historically, you would see that and assume that the parents would turn against their kids, in both situations. There’s something so moving and so beautiful about that in our film. When you watch a high school rom-com, it’s aimed at a younger audience and it’s aimed at the kids, but what a gift it is to have parents see that and witness people their age who are having that reaction versus the reaction that, historically, we think they’re gonna have, which is being angry at the child or dismissing the child. It’s such a learning lesson for both parents and kids watching it.

It really feels like Anything’s Possible is a very fitting title for this movie. Did you both personally feel like anything is possible in your own lives, prior to making this, or has making this film made you feel more like that really is true, especially after carrying a movie like this?

REIGN: Before working on this film, I definitely didn’t feel that way. My mind started to open up to what is possible in my life, throughout playing Kelsa. I had never worked on a movie before. I had never done a television show before. This was my first role. And to be the lead, working alongside Billy Porter and amazing people like Abu, who like went to Yale, I was like, “Oh, my God, how did I get here? What’s happening?” I had to get to a point where I allowed myself to feel happy and to feel confident in it, and also to dream bigger. That’s something that Kelsa talks about, throughout the entire film. She talks about how she wants to see what’s out there, in the future. Kelsa doesn’t put a limit on what’s possible, and through playing her, I also took in that same lesson.

ALI: I’d always felt anything’s possible, and I mean that truly in the least arrogant way and in a way of honoring both me and Eva’s talent and respecting that. I always felt anything was possible, in relation to my own talent and relation to my own artistry, and the extent of my capabilities, as an artist, but I did not think anything was possible, in relation to the industry and the world allowing that artistry and allowing that talent to do its thing.

REIGN: Yes.

ALI: I had no doubt in my capabilities, and I don’t think Eva had any doubt in her capabilities.

REIGN: I definitely always felt that I was capable. I just didn’t know if anyone was actually gonna give me the gig.

ALI: The doors to practice that and to allow it to do its thing were not opening. We’re very lucky to be here with doors that were opened.

REIGN: Totally.

You guys talked about knowing what you were capable of, and now that you’ve done something like this, other people can embrace what you’re capable of. How does that shape what you want to do next? Does it change how you want to approach your career and the roles you’d like to do?

REIGN: Abu is about to be the lead on a Netflix show (Grendel), so I think he’s all accounted for. But honestly, after getting cast in this movie, just a couple days in, I was talking to the producers and Abu and the rest of the young cast, and people were like, “Oh, my God, girl! You’re gonna do this. You’re going to do that.” And I was like, “Really? You all think I can do that?” I’ve spent the last year reshaping what I think I can do now. I’m just really excited to see what the industry offers, moving forward. We’ve seen two non-white people leading a film that’s really good. I’m just gonna say that this film is really good, and I think that this film is a testament to what really is possible for everyone. So, yeah, I wanna be starring in more stuff. I feel it, I see it, and I know it.

ALI: I’m always trying to remember, and it always gets me emotional to talk about it, but thinking of the generations of people that came before us, whose glass ceiling was Side Character #7 and who approached their audition and their work viewing that human being as a three-dimensional human being, when the industry didn’t see them as three-dimensional human beings and didn’t want them to be that. For me, goal wise and for things in the future, it’s about how I can eventually get to a place, as an artist, to mobilize whatever privileges I have to open the doors to those human beings who are not granted the privileges that I’m afforded right now, as an artist, by virtue of the unfortunate fact that they came up at the wrong time. That, at the end of the day, is not fair and it pisses me off because they are all full three-dimensional artists. Hopefully, people like me, Eva and other artists coming up right now, never forget the work that they did and honor it.

REIGN: Absolutely. They have been so many older Black trans women in their thirties, forties and fifties who have talked to me about how they had a dream of doing something just like this, but they just never really got the chance to do it. I feel very honored to be in this role now, where I get to be the start of that change, moving forward. I don’t wanna be the first of anything. Even seeing firsts just makes me very sad that we’re even in a space where that’s what’s being talked about. The first should have happened ages ago. It is 2022. We should have been at this point, so long ago. So, I am so honored and grateful to be in this moment and to just think about the vast history of people who have tried to make stories like this come about, but just never got the chance to. Now, really the sky is the limit.

ALI: Anything’s possible.

REIGN: Anything’s possible.

Anything’s Possible is available to stream on Prime Video.