Corey Fogelmanis on I Wish You All The Best: ‘It’s scary to be a trans person in the US’

In Tommy Dorfman’s endearing coming-of-age film I Wish You All The Best, which marks her debut as a director, My Life With The Walter Boys actor Corey Fogelmanis is Ben, a non-binary teenager on a journey of self-discovery.

After opening up about their gender identity for the first time, Ben is promptly thrown out of their home by their intolerant parents. Unsure of where to turn, they reconnect with their estranged older sister Hannah (The White Lotus star Alexandra Daddario) and her husband, Thomas (The Suite Life of Zack & Cody star Cole Sprouse).

They move schools too, and find solace in the support of their wacky new art teacher Ms Lyons (Girls’ Lena Dunham) and a connection with Nathan, a sweet and funny student at their new college (played by Agatha All Along star Miles Gutierrez-Riley).

It’s a tale as old as time: a young teen is discovering who they are, and is rejected by the harsh and hostile world around them. With Dorfman’s new film though, the real-world atmosphere surrounding its release makes I Wish You All The Best all the more pertinent. 

“I Wish You All the Best was never intended to be a political film, beyond the fact that I, a trans woman, wrote, directed, and produced a commercial coming-of-age drama explicitly about a nonbinary teenager coming of age, which inherently is political or at least politicized,” Tommy Dorfman wrote in a statement. The 13 Reasons Why actress came out as trans back in 2021.

“My approach was grounded in celebrating queerness, not highlighting all the constraints queer people face. This still feels viable, even if the landscape has shifted,” she added.

The film cast Fogelmanis in the lead back in 2022, two years before Donald Trump’s return to the White House, bringing with him a renewed onslaught of attacks against the trans and non-binary communities.

One of his very first executive orders signed after entering office in January outlined that there are “only two sexes” and that they cannot be changed. This was the first of many attempts to further push trans people out of public life in the US.

“A story about finding yourself is timeless. It’s something that you can relate to at any point in your life, but what makes it so important for this day and age, I guess, is honestly how scary it is to be a trans or queer person in this country,” Corey Fogelmanis exclusively tells PinkNews ahead of the release of I Wish You All the Best.

Fogelmanis, who is queer and most recently appeared in Conan Gray’s trio of queer music videos for his Wishbone album, describes I Wish You All the Best as “hopeful” but confesses that he knows such hope isn’t always accessible in today’s increasingly anti-LGBTQ+ climate.

“Tommy was saying earlier in a way this [film] is kind of a fantasy because it does end up so hopefully for Ben, and that’s just not everybody’s story unfortunately. But I think it’s beautiful that we have a blueprint and an expression of queer joy and to see a kid find their way and find love and acceptance for themselves is just something that we need to see [and] the world needs.”

Gutierrez-Riley agrees, spotlighting the importance for queer and trans teens to see a story that reflects hope, even if it doesn’t necessarily align with their experience.

“I think back to the way I felt watching something like The Perks of Being A Wallflower or movies like that when I was younger,” he says.

“Even though my experience wasn’t necessarily identical to those characters, I definitely felt like I was seeing things that I was feeling inside represented in such a beautiful way. I think no matter if you’re queer or trans or an ally or straight, or no matter who you [are], seeing a story about finding yourself through all of the challenges that growing up brings – it’s something you can relate to,” he adds.

“And empathy is so important right now, so even if you think you may not relate, I’m sure that you will.”

While Dorfman shot into the public consciousness with her 2017 role in 13 Reasons Why, she has since become known for her writing as much as her acting. Her memoir, Maybe This Will Save Me, was released earlier this year, and she co-wrote I Wish You All The Best as well as directing it.

“It was so interesting. You never felt that it was her first time doing this at all,” Fogelmanis says of Dorfman’s directorial debut.

“She was so confident and she had such a clear vision for who these characters were and what story she wanted to tell and it was just easy. It was so exciting and inspiring to watch her do something that I feel like she was just meant to do,” he continues.

Corey Fogelmanis made his acting breakthrough in Girl Meets World alongside Sabrina Carpenter, and later appeared in Netflix’s My Life with the Walter Boys.

While filming with Dorfman, she made a playlist to play over scenes in which Fogelmanis was acting without dialogue as it enabled the actor to “tap into certain moments” of Ben’s story.

“I feel like she – because she’s an actor and she knows how it feels to be in front of the camera and to be spoken to as an actor – just really did a great job of meeting everybody where they were at,” he says.

For Gutierrez-Riley, Dorfman excelled at creating a “fun, positive, energetic, youthful environment” on the set, while also being “so precise” and “extremely smart” with her directorial decisions.

“I felt like she was treating everyone like they were the professionals that they were,” the actor adds.

“When it came to the cast and crew, it’s like she was totally born to be a leader like this.”

I Wish You All The Best is released in theatres on 7 November 2025 in the US.

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