EXCLUSIVE: Actress Bella Thorne has wrapped production on Color Your Hurt, a coming-of-age thriller based on her 2024 short Unsettled, which marks her feature directorial debut. The cast includes Jason Parks, who makes his feature film debut, as well as BAFTA nominee and Emmy winner Christopher Eccleston (Jude), Golden Globe nominee and Emmy winner Tammy Blanchard (Into the Woods), Tony nominee Gideon Glick (Maestro), Jordan Alexander (Gossip Girl), and Tony nominee Tom Pecinka (The Kill Room).
Also written and produced by Thorne, Color Your Hurt follows a young gay man struggling for self-acceptance in a hostile community. Haunted by his repressed memories that twist into nightmarish visions, he must navigate a gauntlet of fear, violence, and fleeting beauty on a journey that’s as terrifying as it is liberating.
Thorne wrote, directed and produced Unsettled, also starring Parks, having based both on the actor’s true-life experiences. The short world premiered at Palm Springs ShortsFest and earned HollyShorts’ award for Best Rising Director.
The feature take’s cast also includes Golden Globe nominee Linus Roache (Mandy), Emmy and Tony nominee Dylan Baker (Happiness), and Colin Bates (Queer). Mark Emms (Bad Vegan) produced alongside Thorne for AM Films. Freddie Sizer and Parks exec produced alongside Courtenay Semel, Ram Getz, Michael Mortensen, Dave Osokow, Kiowa Gordon, Patrick Sutter, and Yulia Zayceva (Kristen Stewart’s upcoming The Chronology of Water).
In a statement to Deadline following production wrap, Thorne said, “I’m excited to have collaborated with this phenomenal cast in bringing Jason’s inspiring and emotional story to the big screen. With Jason, Christopher, Tammy, Gideon, Jordan, and the rest of our amazing actors, we’ve assembled a deeply committed and phenomenal group who have done it justice.”
Breaking out as a child actor with roles in the series Dirty Sexy Money and My Own Worst Enemy, Thorne has since gone on to roles in Netflix’s The Babysitter, Sam Levinson’s Assassination Nation, Eddie Alcazar’s Sundance pic Divinity opposite Stephen Dorff, Chick Fight, The DUFF and more. Alongside her acting work, she’s been steadily building a portfolio as a director on music videos and shorts like Paint Her Red, which premiered at the 2023 Taormina Film Festival. She is repped by CAA; Thor Bradwell at Thirty Three Management, who also reps Parks; and Hirsch Wallerstein Hayum.
Eccleston is repped by Markham, Froggatt and Irwin; Blanchard by Paradigm; Glick by CAA and Untitled Entertainment; and Alexander by Innovative Artists and Artists First.