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

There’s a reason why the dramedy Good Bad Things earned buzz on the festival circuit: The film offers an authentic perspective on disabled life, from dating, to business, to the friendships that energize us. It’s now available to rent or buy on Apple TV+ and other streaming platforms, but it almost didn’t make it to the screen. 

Good Bad Things lead Danny Kurtzman was working in the fashion industry when Shane D. Stanger approached him about making a film. Stanger, a childhood friend of Kurtzman’s, wanted to collaborate on a film before he graduated from the University of Southern California’s Peter Stark Producing Program. He’d direct the film and Kurtzman, who has muscular dystrophy, would make his acting debut. But when they read the disability-focused script — written by a well-known nondisabled filmmaker — they instantly knew they had a bigger problem than Kurtzman’s lack of experience in front of the camera. 

Kurtzman describes the first script as “ableist.” Instead of abandoning the idea of making a movie altogether, Stanger and Kurtzman decided to tell their own story about life with a disability. Thus, Good Bad Things was born. “That’s how authentic disability stories get told. With us, by us, for us … and not without us,” Kurtzman says. 

In the film, he stars as Danny, an entrepreneur who owns a boutique advertising agency with his friend Jason (Jane the Virgin’s Brett Dier). Amid struggling to make payroll every month, the roommates land a pitch meeting with the executives at Rubi, a dating app company desperately in need of a rebrand. Jason convinces Danny to join Rubi as “research.” He agrees, even though he’s still healing from a toxic relationship. 

On Rubi, Danny meets Madi (Jessica Parker Kennedy), a photographer with a passion for the boudoir style. So begins Danny’s journey to body acceptance, in which he makes stops to microdose in the desert and reacquaint himself with self-doubt along the way.  

Good Bad Things is a raw, unapologetic look at disability that’s rarely portrayed in Hollywood. New Mobility talked with Kurtzman about his acting debut, how his personal experiences informed the film, and the importance of depicting a disabled life full of possibility on-screen.  

The conversation has been edited for clarity and length. 

Esme Mazzeo: Online dating is a prominent theme in Good Bad Things. Do you have one particular dating story that informed the film?  

Danny Kurtzman: No, not just one story. I’ve been on dating apps since they came out. I’ve done them all. Every single one you can think of, honestly. The scene where I crop my chair out of a profile picture, I’ve done that many, many times. I don’t do that anymore. 

EM: As a disabled viewer, it was a poignant moment, watching Danny crop out his chair from his profile picture. Can you tell me more about your journey from cropping your chair out to including it in photos on dating apps?  

DK: I’ve been diagnosed with muscular dystrophy since I was 9 years old, and it’s progressive. So, I get weaker and weaker as I get older. I struggled with my power [as it relates to] my disability. I maybe came off like a powerful, proud, disabled person who was taking on everything every single day. But internally, I was a little bit broken and hid and always felt like I had to overcome obstacles. 

During COVID, I hit a very low point in my life and started feeling all those things physically. And I’m not one to sit in those things for too long in my life. I searched to find a way to get help because that’s the big thing in our world — we can’t do everything on our own.  

I found this amazing individual named Carson Tueller. Carson is a life coach, and he’s disabled. He’s changed my life in ways I can’t even explain. He’s helped me really go into all the stuff with my disability and helped me write Good Bad Things and what it means to be disabled to me. I think timing in life is everything. I was in a perfect mental place when Shane came to me with this project. 

EM: Do you have any dating advice for disabled people who might be experiencing similar struggles as you’ve had? 

DK: Unless you love yourself, don’t go out and try to find love. That’s the most healthy way I think you can enter into a disabled relationship or an interabled relationship — you’ve got to truly love who you are as a disabled person. 

And if the person that you want to be with doesn’t love you for who you are in the first moment you meet them and later down the line, then they’re not your person. Your person is out there somewhere and you’ll find them. Don’t give up. 

EM: I saw that you’ve done a similar photo shoot to the one that Danny, your character, does with Madi in the film. Can you explain how that experience fits into your body acceptance journey?  

DK: It was everything. 

I hit it off with the wedding photographer at my best friend’s wedding and she wanted to do a shoot with me. After the wedding, we did this photo shoot and she asked if I felt comfortable being naked. I am very comfortable being naked. In the moment, I was acting like a strong, confident person, like, “Oh yeah, we’re doing this thing.” 

When I saw the photos that she gave to me, it was honestly the first moment in my whole, entire disabled life that I truly looked at myself and was like, “I’m sexy. I’m beautiful.” 

Those are very hot photos that a lot of people can look at and be infatuated with, turned on by, just excited about. It was a big moment in my disabled life. 

EM: Do you have any thoughts on how someone who doesn’t have a chance meeting with a photographer can begin doing the work to accept their body if they want to? 

DK: There’s no straight answer to that. Society has built a story for us that’s so strong that we have accepted it as our truth to the deepest levels, and unfortunately, it takes a lot of work to unravel that story, to get to a point where we can rewrite our own story that feels real to us. 

It starts with asking for help, being vulnerable and trusting your feelings in your gut. I’ve always known that I was sexy and beautiful, but it wasn’t my story for so long until I just leaned into my gut feeling. My body is perfect, and I can be portrayed and viewed as sexy. 

EM: Is there an overall message that you hope the disability community takes from Good Bad Things? 

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

We’re at this really special time as disabled people where a lot of chaos and a lot of scary things are happening. We could freak out and internalize and hide, but I truly feel like it’s our moment to unite and rewrite what it really means to be disabled in today’s world. It happens now. We’ve got to do this thing together, not by ourselves.