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 1-on-1 interview with Collider, Porter talked about how magical it is to embrace your true and authentic self, the feeling of redemption that comes with finally achieving the goal of directing a film, why he was attracted to this project, casting his two leads, why it was important that this story showcase supportive parents, the joyful dance montage, and what he learned about himself as a director.

Collider: How does it feel to be at a place in your life and career, where not only can you say that you are your true and authentic self and embrace that, but that you’re also able to make that recognition and representation happen for other people?

BILLY PORTER: It’s magical. It has always been my intention. I have been mentored by people who’ve made space for me, and it has always been my goal to be able to do that and pay it forward.

After all the struggle you’ve been through in your career, how does the next step as a movie director feel?

PORTER: The whole thing feels redemptive. All of it. I was told my queerness would be my liability, and it was for a really long time, and now it ain’t. Now, I get to do what I want to do because I chose myself, I chose my own authenticity, and I chose to be truthful and honest, no matter what and no matter where the chips would fall. I hope that, in setting myself free, others will be set free too.

You’ve directed for theater, but you hadn’t directed for film, prior to this. Before helming Anything’s Possible, how long had you been thinking about directing? Had you been actively looking? Had you come close on any other projects? What was that process like?

PORTER: Back in 2000, when I was in search of some things like my voice and was not happy with where my career was at the time, I was introduced to a book called The Artist’s Way. It’s a workbook in excavating the creative truth from within. I realized, “Oh, I need to be at the helm. I need to be in the driver’s seat. I need to tell my own story. I need to tell the truth. And the only way to do that is to write it myself and direct it myself because nobody else knows what to do.” Nobody else knows how to tell my story better than me, so I needed to get the skills and the craft to do that. That’s where it started, about 22 years ago. And I went into the theater first because I already had connections in the theater, but my goal was always to transition into film and television.

Were there projects that spoke to you as much as this one did, prior to this, or was it this one that really just inspired you, in a way that you hadn’t been?

PORTER: This project found me, and it was perfection. It was everything that I had been asking for. I hadn’t really had any film directing opportunities before this. I was looking for them. I had put the energy out into the world, and this is what came back to me.

How close was the first script that you read to the movie that we see now? Is it pretty close to the same thing, or were there major changes that were made?

PORTER: It’s about 85-90% the same. It’s 100% the same intention. In terms of scenes and stuff, I would say it’s 85 to 90% the same.

A rom-com doesn’t work unless there’s chemistry between your leads, so what was the casting like for this? How did you know when you had your two leads? When I spoke to them about the film, they both said that they’re confident in their own abilities, but just needed someone to give them a chance. So, what made you confident in their abilities?

PORTER: I saw their auditions and I talked to them, and I’m a pretty good judge of character. I’ve been in this business a long time. They both had what I needed. It’s hard to do the chemistry thing over Zoom, so I just prayed a lot and crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.

Was there a moment, in seeing them together, where you realized it was actually working?

PORTER: Yeah, the moment they started. You can tell, day one, if they either have it or they don’t. It’s a very fast process. And they just always had it. We got really lucky.

I love the parents of both of the characters and the special moments that they share with their kids in this, just loving them and being there for them. What do you most love about those relationships and why was that something you felt was important to include?

PORTER: It was important for me to include supportive parents in this progressive new world order, and also progressive minority parents. As a Black person, the relationship that the Black community has with the LGBTQ+ community is tenuous at best, and it’s time for that to be over. It’s time for us to talk about that out loud. And the Muslim Indian, Muslim Persian, and all of the communities have their version of perfectionism and of what they think is best for their children or not. I just wanted to show what unconditional love looks like, period, and how we do support our children.

I love the dance montage at the end of the movie. I just love the feeling it leaves you with after seeing it. What made that the thing you wanted to end the film on?

PORTER: I knew, as soon as we decided that I was gonna direct the movie, that I also wanted to do the soundtrack because, as a musical artist and musical theater artist, I’m a music person. It’s the music that dictates the storytelling, and by music, I mean the rhythms of the language, the actual music, the movement of the camera, and the staging of the people. All of it is music to me. That’s how I get into the storytelling. I’m signed to Republic Records/Island in the UK. I got them to commit to doing a original soundtrack because I was like, “It’s an original story, so we need original music. Pop music that feels familiar, but that nobody else has heard before.” Originally, the musical number was written to go right after the first montage of scenes, when they walk into the school. The title comes in with the pompoms, and then she stumbles into class. The three girls walked into the school, the pompoms happened, the title came up, the elevator opened, and the song was right there. What I was trying to do was teach the audience what my goal was, which was how to watch this transgender story of joy and celebration. We needed to teach the audience how to do that. So, it ended up at the end, but I think it works really well there because you already know the characters. I was trying to introduce all the characters at the top, with their energies. If you notice, they all have their little moments. So, it ended up functioning in a different way, ultimately, in the final product. I think it works really well because it does leave everybody on an up and celebratory note, so it still has the same function.

Having had this experience now and having directed a film, how are you approaching the next thing you want to direct? Do you already know what you want to do? Do you have ideas?

PORTER: What I learned is that I know a lot more than I thought I knew, and I need to trust my instincts, at all times, because my instincts are right. That doesn’t mean that I’m not open to collaboration. I love the directing process. I have to figure out how to navigate all the other bullshit that’s around it. There’s a lot of bullshit around the process of movie-making. There just is a lot. That’s just the nature of the beast. So, I feel like I’ve gained some skills and craft in navigating that.

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