Corey Fogelmanis says he’s never felt more “free and cute” than when he was filming the coming-of-age movie I Wish You All the Best, often dressed in director Tommy Dorfman’s own clothes.
In the adaptation of Mason Deaver’s young adult novel — which had its theatrical release on Nov. 7 and will release on digital on Nov. 25 — Fogelmanis plays teenager Ben De Backer, who is kicked out of their home after they come out to their parents as nonbinary. But the story doesn’t end with trauma; instead, Dorfman weaves together a moving narrative about found family, queer community, and finding the courage to be who you are and go after what you want.
Clothing is a crucial piece of that journey: at the beginning of the film, Ben tends to hide in baggy jeans and hoodies. As they learn more about themself, and as they fall in love with Nathan (Miles Gutierrez-Riley), they embrace color, softness, and texture; tank tops, skirts, and fuzzy sweaters.
“There were so many clothes, and people were talking a lot about what [is] Ben's presentation. We called it drag, basically,” Fogelmanis tells Teen Vogue during an interview in August about how Ben chooses to dress when they’re not as comfortable being out. “The idea of presenting as a form of protection is something that I think we all do in some capacity, even if we're not aware of it. It was Tommy who put that into words for me.”
“It just felt like dress-up every day, but not, like, a costume,” he continues. “It was just like, this is another side of myself. [I was] walking around the set and all these very macho grips, [wearing] just the tiniest shirt I've ever worn in my life. And I didn't think twice. And they didn't bat an eye. I can't say it's always felt like that. I think it was such a safe environment for me to explore what we were exploring.”
We discuss how intrinsic clothing exploration is to a person’s coming of age, and doubly so if you experience any kind of marginalization. It’s about “finding [a] place in this world,” Fogelmanis says, when you’re not the “overarching norm.” He finds that a fem/masc clothing binary isn’t something you have to be on one side of all the time.
“It's so individual to the person,” he says. “I'll go to a store with my sister, and she pointed this out — I beeline to the women's and she goes to the men's section. It's what we feel fits us better. I have days where I really want to hide under a big baggy shirt and some days I'm wearing something really tight. And sometimes I don't leave the house because it doesn't feel right. It's so day-to-day.”
Ben is a character we meet after they’ve come to accept who they are, so there isn’t confusion about being nonbinary; the tension comes in how other people react and interpret and support (or condemn) them, and how they fall in love while moving through depression and fear of vulnerability. The book came out in 2019, and the movie in November 2025 — two very different cultural ecosystems, even in the span of six years.
“I was going to say it makes it scarier, I think,” Fogelmanis says of the time it took and the world we live in now. “But at the end of the day, it's just a movie, and there's very real violence for a lot of people. So that's kind of why I almost didn’t say that, it feels silly. But I think that's also how I know that it's more important now, that it really needs to come out. And in a way, maybe I'm glad that it took this long, because what I'm so proud of the movie for being is a source of light for us making it, and [also for] people who see it.”
That source of light comes through in the movie’s final scene, when B — their chosen name — dances down a classic coming-of-age movie suburban street, dressed in a flowing green skirt and lilac sweater. They throw themselves against oak trees and leap atop brick fences. They are fluid, playful, and light on their feet. It wasn’t choreographed beyond some work with a movement coach to help Fogelmanis loosen up.
“It really was me as B in that moment,” Corey Fogelmanis recalls. Spontaneous, free, unconstrained by what any passerby might think. It’s a feeling Fogelmanis has carried forward in the years since, along with the clothes he stole from set. “Sometimes I'll talk about the character as me,” he smiles, “so yeah, it was a special time.”
