Dating, Disability and Body Acceptance with Good Bad Things star Danny Kurtzman

There is a reason why drama Good bad things He won the buzz in the festival circuit: the film offers an authentic perspective on disabled life, from appointments to business, to the friendships that energize us. Now it is available to rent or buy in Apple TV+ And other transmission platforms, but almost did not reach the screen.

Good bad things The leader Danny Kurtzman was working in the fashion industry when Shane D. Stanger approached him to make a movie. Stanger, a Kurtzman childhood friend, wanted to collaborate in a film before graduating from the University of Southern California. Peter Stark production program. He would direct the film and Kurtzman, who has muscle dystrophy, would make his debut as an actress. But when they read the script focused on disability, written by a well -known disabilities, instantly they knew they had a problem greater than Kurtzman’s lack of experience in front of the camera.

Kurtzman describes the first script as “capable.” Instead of abandoning the idea of ​​making a film completely, Stanger and Kurtzman decided to tell their own history about life with a disability. Thus, Good bad things He was born. “This is how authentic disability stories are told. With us, for us, for us … and not without us, “says Kurtzman.

In the movie, he plays Danny, a businessman who has a boutique advertising agency with his friend Jason (Jane la Virgen ‘S Brett Dier). Amid the fight to make the payroll every month, the roommates get a launch meeting with Rubi executives, an appointment application company that desperately needs a brand change. Jason convinces Danny to join Rubi as “research.” He agrees, although he is still healing a toxic relationship.

In Rubi, Danny meets Madi (Jessica Parker Kennedy), a photographer with passion for the dressing table. So Danny’s trip begins towards the acceptance of the body, in which he makes stops for microdosis in the desert and forward himself with doubts on the road.

Good bad things It is a raw look without disability complexes that is rarely portrayed in Hollywood. New mobility I spoke with Kurtzman about his debut as an actor, how his personal experiences reported the film and the importance of representing a disabled life full of possibilities on the screen.

The conversation has been edited for clarity and duration.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWMGFXPSZFC

Esme Mazzeo: Online appointments is an outstanding topic in Good bad things. Do you have a particular citation story that reported the film?

Danny Kurtzman: No, not just a story. I have been in appointment applications since they left. I have done them all. Each one who occurs to you, honestly. The scene in which I cut my chair in a profile picture, I have made so many, many times. I don’t do that anymore.

EM: As a disabled spectator, it was a moving moment, seeing Danny get his chair from his profile picture. Can you tell me more about your trip from cutting your chair to include it in photos in appointment applications?

DK: I was diagnosed with muscle dystrophy since I was 9 years old, and it is progressive. So, I feel weaker as I aged. I fought with my power [as it relates to] My disability. Maybe I left a powerful, proud and disabled person who was assuming every day. But internally, I was a little broken and hidden and I always felt that I had to overcome obstacles.

During Covid, I reached a very low point in my life and began to feel all those things physically. And I am not one to sit in those things for too long in my life. I sought to find a way to get help because that is the big thing in our world: we cannot do everything on our own.

I found this incredible individual named Carson Tueller. Carson is a life coach and is disabled. My life has changed in a way that I can’t even explain. It has really helped me to enter all things with my disability and helped me write Good bad things And what it means to be disabled for me. I think that time in life is everything. I was in a perfect mental place when Shane came to me with this project.

EM: Do you have any appointment advice for disabled people who can experience similar struggles as they have done?

DK: Unless you love yourself, don’t go out and try to find love. That is the healthiest way that I think can participate in a disabled relationship or an interested relationship: you must really love who you are as a disabled person.

And if the person you want to be, does not love you for who you are in the first moment that you know them and then in the future, then they are not your person. You are somewhere and you will find them. Do not give up.

EM: I saw that you have made a photo shoot similar to the one Danny, your character, does with Madi in the movie. Can you explain how this experience fits the acceptance trip of your body?

DK: It was everything.

I took it well with the wedding photographer at my best friend’s wedding and she wanted to make a session with me. After the wedding, we did this photo shoot and she asked me if I felt comfortable to be naked. I feel very comfortable to be naked. At the time, I was acting as a strong and safe person, like, “Oh, yes, we are doing this.”

When I saw the photos she gave me, it was honestly the first moment in my whole life disabled that I really looked and said: “I am sexy. I am beautiful.”

Those are very hot photos that many people can see and be in love, lit, simply excited. It was a great moment in my disabled life.

EM: Do you have any idea about how someone who does not have an opportunity to meet with a photographer can start doing the job to accept his body if he wishes?

DK: There is no direct answer to that. Society has built a story for us that is so strong that we have accepted it as our truth at the deepest levels, and unfortunately, a lot of work is needed to unravel that story, to reach a point where we can rewrite our own story That feels real for us.

He begins with asking for help, being vulnerable and trusting his feelings in his institutes. I have always known that it was sexy and beautiful, but it wasn’t my story for so long until I leaned on my instinct. My body is perfect, and I can be portrayed and seen as sexy.

EM: Is there a general message that expects the disability community to take Good bad things?

DK: If this movie helps you escape chaos and reality for 96 minutes or helps you laugh, smile or spill a tear or text message, then I think we did a good job with the movie.

We are at this really special moment as disabled people where a lot of chaos and many scary things are happening. We could scare, internalize and hide, but I really feel that it is our time to unite and rewrite what really means being disabled in today’s world. It happens now. We have to do this together, not for ourselves.