SXSW 2024: Bob Trevino Likes It Cast Talks Therapy Sessions and Making a Movie Inspired By A Real Person
Due to a childhood with a neglectful and narcissistic father (French Stewart), Lily Trevino (Barbie Ferreira) is a people pleaser searching for a love and familial stability that her father can never provide. After an unavoidable fight with her biological father goes awry, she searches her father’s name on Facebook. On the other end of the friend request is a man who shares her father’s name of Bob Trevino, played by John Leguizamo. After a life of never ending work, bills, and a grieving wife, Bob often finds himself lonely as well. What begins as a pleasant chat online develops into a close bond that allows both Lily and Bob to explore what they deserve out of the one life they have. Pop Culture Planet’s Danielle Forte spoke to the cast of Bob Trevino Likes It at this year’s SXSW on creating a film based on their director’s real life story.
Director and writer Tracie Laymon didn’t have to search far for this story, as it is based off her real life. “I was looking for my dad online because he kind of disappeared. He would do that sometimes and he wouldn’t call or email me back. So, I put his name into Facebook, I thought maybe he’s on Facebook,” Laymon told me. “And I woke up to a notification that ‘Bob Laymon likes it.’” She had mentioned in the Q&A after the premiere that she had changed her dad’s name out of fear that he may sue. After seeing the notification on Facebook, Laymon thought, “My dad’s back! My dad likes me! But, it wasn’t him, it was another man with his name. For 9 years this stranger from the Internet was so nice and kind and more fatherly to me than my dad ever was.”
Barbie Ferreira explained that this project was personal to everyone on set and it made them all the more connected while working on this project. “It was a mass therapeutic moment,” Ferreira said. “Everyone was able to bring their own hurt and healing to it.” Ferreira is no stranger to having an absent father. On an episode of Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert, Shepard had asked her about her connection with her father, to which Ferreira revealed: "I had a relationship with my father until I was about seven and then he bounced. To this day, I don't really know where he is. He's in Portugal sometimes, in Brazil sometimes. He'll, like, send me messages."
She went on to explain: "I don't talk to him for a reason and I haven't since I was kid. He was not a very good man.” Being that Ferreira’s story and life experiences were eerily similar to Laymon’s, she found it effortless to connect to her character Lily, allowing for a beautiful raw portrayal of a girl figuring out that she does deserve love.
French Stewart noted that he “listened to Tracie a lot because it’s her story. We have similarities of story, but at the same time you’re handling somebody’s past, so it’s good to listen to them and try to create something that honors their story.” You could truly feel the love and familial bond between the cast and crew during the red carpet premiere.
Laymon echoed Ferreira’s therapy sentiment, stating that she wants audiences to take away that it’s okay to “let go of the people that continually hurt you, to make room for all of the people that want to love you.”
Bob Trevino Likes It is still in search of a distributor, but with it’s alluring story and cast, I’m sure this film won’t have any issues.
