Inspired by the true friendship that writer/director Tracie Laymon found with a stranger when looking for her father online, Bob Trevino Likes It is a heartwarming tale about how even the smallest act of kindness can have the largest ripple effect on someone’s life.
Often playing the role of caretaker to people like her father who should be caring for her, Lily Trevino (Barbie Ferreira) longs for a familial connection, having been abandoned by her mother as a child and then suddenly by her father (French Stewart) in her twenties.
Bob Trevino (John Leguizamo) works long hours alone at a construction company to support his wife Jeanie’s scrapbooking habit. The couple has endured a lot in the past decade, and Bob has sought to put his wife first, to the point of ignoring his own feelings and need for friendship, meaning, and connection. That is, until he gets an unexpected Facebook message from a stranger.
Lily and Bob’s blossoming friendship becomes a vital source of connection and healing in both their lives. Bob’s small acts of fatherly kindness fill a familial void in Lily’s life and hold the power to change her direction forever.
Following its success at last year’s SXSW Festival, where it won the Film & TV festival’s Grand Jury Award and Audience Award in the Narrative Feature categories, Bob Trevino Likes It is releasing in select theatres globally from this week, and to coincide our Peter Gray spoke to writer/director Laymon about how she felt telling such a personal story through a filmic lens, what was fact and what was fiction, and what she hopes audiences take away from the film itself.
You’ve probably been asked this question countless times before regarding where this story originated for you, but when you’re doing a story like this, do you know how much of it will be embellished and how much will stay true to what happened?
The real-life story (took place) over nine years, not a few months like in the film. But that change and healing in me had happened in a few months. So, it felt truthful to compact it. It’s also better for production to kind of compact it. It is semi-autobiographical and inspired by, not based on. I would take the moments of my life, the moments of evolution, and those moments are all true.
Maybe I crafted a sequence that was more cinematic around that moment, but it was very important to me to speak to that truth, to speak to where I came from (and) how I healed from the evolution of that. However I did that and stayed true to that process, it seemed okay to me. There are a lot of differences. There are a lot of things that are left out as well, and a lot of characters that aren’t in there that were there in real life, but I think Facebook Bob would appreciate what I said was truthful.
Is it true that you never actually met the real Bob?
Yeah. So over the nine years I was submitting to this festival in Wichita, Kansas, because I thought I wanted to find a natural way to meet him. I was making these short films, and I thought if I got into this festival, it’s called Tallgrass, I’d go there and meet him and his wife, and it’ll be natural and not weird. I wanted to find a natural way to thank him for all the healing and kindness. I didn’t want to tell him how much he meant to me, because I didn’t want to make it weird. I was just trying to make it natural.
I kept getting rejected from this festival, which I found strange because I was getting into these other festivals. Then he passed away in 2021, and I was consumed with regret having never told him what he meant to me. I got his widow on the phone, she was also a Facebook friend, and I told her how I never got to tell him, so now I have to tell everybody. I wanted his legacy and the gifts he gave me to live on through this film. I think if I had met him in a weird way, I wonder if I would have felt as compelled (to tell this story).
It really does feel like a universal story in many ways. One of the things I really loved in the film, and this is going to make me sound so old because kids today don’t understand the joy and connection that there is in owning a physical photo album, but that inclusion was where the tears really started flowing for me. That was such a beautiful moment in the film. Was that a true moment?
That was a combination of a few things. I had a childhood friend whose mother was a scrapbooker our whole childhood. My family, I felt like we didn’t save our photos in that way. It was really special that my friend’s family included me in their scrapbook.
In real life, what had happened was my dad collected all my childhood photos, (but) he didn’t want them. He put them in a garbage bag and handed them to someone to give to me. I think I’d done enough healing by that time that I was happy to have the photos. I was glad they weren’t thrown out. But it is a weird feeling having someone you’re so close to not want the photos of you, and then be treasured in the photos of those whose family you’re not a part of.
Speaking of things that you treasure, you have John Leguizamo here. I had the pleasure of interviewing him a few years ago, and it’s no word of a lie saying I grew up with so many of his films, and he’s just the most wonderful man. And then you have Barbie Ferreira as well, whose performance is just phenomenal. How did they come about for you to embody these characters so close to you?
I really like casting against type. I don’t believe in type, really. I get so frustrated by the boxes that actors get put in. When I look at Barbie Ferreira and her work, you know, Euphoria, or her work in this movie called Unpregnant, she was so funny and had this childlike awe about her. You have that and then the vulnerability from Euphoria, and she’s just incredible. I want more of her. I wanted to see more of her in (Euphoria). When I was putting this together, I knew she was Lily. She had this range and she can shine like the incredible artist she is. And boy, did she!
And then with John Leguizamo, he was a bit later in the process. I didn’t have a casting director at first, and I didn’t have any ties to him. I think it was also kind of booked earlier, and it took so long to make the movie that I heard he was available, and I knew I had to go to him. He’s done such incredible, nuanced work. When They See Us, I saw that and just thought how much he deserves all the role. I saw a sit-down interview with him and he was talking about family and bullying and making Latin history, and he got kind of choked up. When he choked up in the interview, I got choked up, and I was seeing his heart, which I’m sure you saw in your interview. In that moment, I knew he was Bob. I’m casting hearts in this movie, and he’s an absolute treasure. He’s a national treasure. He’s a global treasure. And just so kind.
And how was the experience for you in casting French Stewart as your father? This is someone that represents something so unique to your life…
Yeah, it was a happy accident, because I’ve always loved French Stewart. His wife is a friend of mine. I’ve always loved his work. He’s so funny. I’d seen a little bit of his theatre work, but not a lot, so I’d only seen his comedic work. Vanessa, his incredible wife, who’s this great writer, she brought him to my writing group one day. He read for Lily’s dad, and the script was so early that he didn’t even have a name yet. We were all watching him cold-read these pages, and we were all in shock. After that, I couldn’t offer the role to anyone else. Luckily he stuck around (laughs).
Truly a case of everything happens for a reason. Looking at that, is there one particular message you hope people walk away with when watching the film?
The one big message I hope we’re conveying is that the little things we say and do matter, and we have all these opportunities in a day to be kind or unkind, and you don’t know what the person is dealing with. You know, Facebook Bob never knew he had the same name as my dad. I knew that. He just thought I friended him and was looking for a relative. He never knew the access that he had. He made so many decisions over those nine years to be kind, and he didn’t know why I was reaching out. He could have been unkind. Then we would be telling a different story. We probably wouldn’t have a story at all.
We can be kind to other people and we can see that everybody belongs. And if you don’t feel like you belong, maybe there’s another space right across the street where you do. It might be your biological family. It might be a chosen family. We all belong.
Bob Trevino Likes It is screening in select Australian theatres from March 20th, 2025.
