Barbie Ferreira, John Leguizamo & Bob Trevino Likes It Team On The Movie's Honesty [SXSW]

Summary Bob Trevino Likes It explores human connection and healing through an unconventional friendship between Lily and Bob.

Inspired by a true story, the film delves into themes of abandonment, loneliness, and the search for love and family.

The heartfelt performances by Barbie Ferreira and John Leguizamo bring depth and emotion to the characters of Lily and Bob.

Human connection is at the heart of the story behind the dramedy Bob Trevino Likes It, which recently debuted at the 2024 South by Southwest Festival. Using her own story of abandonment and the friendship she found in a stranger while searching for her absent father, Filmmaker Tracie Laymon tells the story of two people who find connection and healing in each other. Euphoria's Barbie Ferreira is a young woman longing for a connection she finds in a stranger played by John Leguizamo, with French Stewart, Lauren "Lolo" Spencer, and Rachel Bay Jones rounding out the cast.

Lily Trevino (Ferreira) longs for family connection after she was abandoned as a child by her mother, and then her father (French Stewart) in her twenties. Bob Trevino (Leguizamo) is a man working to support his wife and her crafting habits while neglecting his own needs for companionship, connection, and meaning in life. When Lily mistakenly contacts Bob, who shares her father's name, the two strike up an unconventional friendship. Together they fill a void in the other's life and work to learn they too are worthy of love.

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Screen Rant interviewed Leguizamo, Ferreira, Stewart & Laymon at SXSW where they were promoting Bob Trevino Likes It. Laymon spoke about the inspiration for Bob Trevino, a man she mistakenly friended on Facebook in the search for her own father, who later became more of a father to her than the man responsible for her birth, while Ferreira and Leguizamo spoke about finding the heart in their characters unusual and inspiring relationship.

The True Story Behind Bob Trevino Likes It Moved The Cast

Screen Rant: This is a special special film. You guys are making us cry ugly tears all over the place, so congrats on that. Tracie, you wrote and directed this beautiful film. Can you set it up for us? Who is Bob Trevino, what does he like, and why?

Tracie Laymon: Well, Bob Trevino's inspired by a friend I found on the internet when I was looking for my father. My father had gotten angry and disappeared, so I was trying to reconnect with him, and I accidentally friended another man on the internet with his name when I was looking for him. It's inspired by a true story and a true friendship, and that man was more fatherly to me than my dad ever was.

Did you know how personal this was when you read the script? What impact does that have on you as actors when it's not just a great script, but so true to life?

Barbie Ferreira: When I first read it, I just thought it was so beautiful and so nuanced. I was like, "This is so honest." When you read a script like that, it just is so special, and it really affects you. Even when it's on the page, and you don't even see anything. I didn't know it was based on Tracie's life until we started talking, and then I was like, "Oh my God!" I didn't know the extent of it, and then we were talking about our own lives. Everything in the film, Tracie has made sure was honest to their lives and to everyone's lives; it's universal, but also specific, which I think is really cool. Sometimes when you get too vague [in filmmaking], it doesn't hit. I think this one is both universal and special and personal, so I love that combo. John Leguizamo: I just connect with the story because it's about doing one beautiful thing in life. If you do one positive thing in life, it has all these ramifications that do good around the world. When you watch this movie, it hits you so hard. The first read-through just hit me so hard, because everybody was flesh and blood and real characters. You were laughing so hard, and you were crying so hard all at the same time because of how specific and real the piece is. French Stewart: It hit me the same way. I think a lot of people can grab onto the notion [of finding your family]. Tracie and I had talked about it, and we both have narcissistic biological fathers. I was lucky to get a good stepfather who came in and did a lot of heavy lifting, and I think that resonates with a lot of people. You surround yourself with the people who are actually your family, and not just some sort of biological connection.

Barbie Ferreira’s “Humor And Wit And Kindness” Was Perfect For Bob Trevino Likes It

Tracie, casting was so key, and you knocked it out of the park with your protagonist here. What made Barbie so right for this role?

Tracie Laymon: My gosh, everything about Barbie was right for this. She's such a positive person; she's able to experience the joys in life fully. But Lily's not a doormat, she's a survivor. She has learned ways to cope with humor and wit and kindness, and Barbie personally has all of that. Of course, I've watched her work, and I saw such vulnerability in Euphoria. I was like, "Stay on her! Stay on her all the time. She's incredible. I just want to make a movie all about her." I'd seen her wit and humor in a lot of her other work, and I just thought, "Let's just put all this [in the movie.]" That's Lily completely, and when I met with her, it only confirmed everything I already knew was true.

Barbie, how did you connect with Lily?

Barbie Ferreira: I connected with Lily in so many ways, including daddy issues. Because it's something that I don't really explore, even in my personal life — and especially in the public sphere. It's something that's so vulnerable, and working on this project has just been [freeing]. Even when we got there, the table read was so emotional and so fun. I had never really had a role that connected so much that all of my emotions were at the forefront. It was not at all any work to get there, and I think it's just because of how much I connected with Tracie's story. We all have a connection where I feel for these characters because they're real humans, because it is based off a true story. It is based on reality, and I can relate to so much of it. Even the things I don't relate to, it just hits so deep with me. Finding Lily was spending a lot of time with Tracie and talking through what we wanted her to be and what we didn't want her to be, and building from there. When we got to set, it all just kind of unfolds — especially having such incredible costars. We get to play off each other, and it was even better than I thought it could be. It was emotional, and it was funny. Finding Lily was super therapeutic for me and not very hard. It made so much sense to do it, and to make sure that we make the story good and vulnerable for Tracie. We love Tracie, and I wanted so much to make sure that this character was the representation that she wanted and that we all can relate to. It was a really fun experience.

Bob Trevino Likes It’s Most Convincing Moments Came From Being Malleable

The opening scene is striking. You are sobbing into the camera. What can you say about filming that? How did you capture that? Can you cry on demand, or were there onions involved?

Barbie Ferreira: Honestly, I am not a crying-on-command kind of girl. But with this movie, when it made sense, it completely just came out of me in a way that usually is a little bit harder to access in different projects. You have to do your little actor thing and get into the headspace and everything, but this just felt so natural. Just actually listening and being present was totally enough. While I was there, it was just being present. I did the work before, and then you throw that out. You go there, and you're present, and you feel every story. No matter how many times I would do a scene, it still was so emotional to me, and I couldn't help but cry and sob because the story was just so real. It hits all these parts of my brain that I think I haven't even really explored, so this movie really was therapeutic and just opened up a lot in me.

As a writer and director, how do you approach that with an actor? "You're gonna sob for us right now."

Tracie Laymon: You never want to be result-driven, so I think we collaborated. We set it up, we knew where the character was coming from, and we knew what she was experiencing. I think if you set it up, right, it is a natural thing. And that actually wasn't originally the opening scene, but when we're shooting that, I said, "Holy cow, this is it. This is the new opening image!" Because she showed up and brought it in such a way that I said, "This has to be the opening shot." That's the kind of collaboration that we had, where it's unfolding as we go. We know you know what we're doing and how we get there together.

French, your Bob is not the most likable guy. How'd you go about humanizing him?

French Stewart: One conversation that Tracie and I had over and over again is that everybody is the hero of their own story, and you have to believe that you are honestly the one who is being put out in all of this. And then the rest of it was just learning lines. [Laughs] You fight the lines, you know. I knew we had a short amount of time to do it, and [i knew] how hard Tracy had worked on it, and how good everybody was. On the day, I really wanted to have my lines in my pocket, just right in there, so I could just talk and listen to Barbie and listen to Tracy and be malleable. And that's it. To try and make him a person who [feels] he's the wrong one.

John, you're very lovable. What sort of unique challenges did this one present?

John Leguizamo: Not to make my Bob so perfect, either. That was what me and Tracy would try to work on because nobody's perfect. So how do you make this good dad not just an angel? We found his little hints of depression, his withheld sorrow, and a little bit of anger issues that he has. He sits on his emotions a lot, so we just find these little subtle ways of giving him this backstory in this other life, so that he's not perfect. But I came from a narcissistic, toxic father, so that's what I chose not to be in my life. Obviously, [I did it] through lots of therapy since I was 17. But you can choose to be a great dad, and you can work on it. Bob Trevino is kind of like the dad that I am in real life, so I got a chance to beat myself. Actually, that's what I did, so it's not much.

A Toast To Barbies Everywhere

The relationship between you two is the heart and the soul of the film. What can you say about inspiring each other as actors?

John Leguizamo: Wow. It was one thing you what you read on the page, that's Lily. And then when you see Barbie in it, she's so present, and she's so there. It's such a joy to work with an actor who's so there in the moment and willing to just change whatever you're giving them back and forth. It's just joy. Barbie Ferreira: John's a legend, so I was very intimidated. Every time I told my family, "John Leguizamo..." They were like, "Gasp!" I was so excited to work with you because I always love learning and observing and seeing how people work, especially people who've been in the business longer than me. I feel like such a rookie sometimes, walking in like, "Ooh, I don't know what's going on." It's just always incredible to watch people in their craft and how inspiring it could be. Working with these icons has just been so rewarding, and I've learned so much. I've unlocked so much, and it was a wealth of knowledge. It was amazing. It was so sweet and tender to have our moments, and it was just so fun to do it too. Even during the not-so-fun emotional times, I think it was fun for me, because in the end, it's like I got something off my chest in a way that was so real. It wasn't like I ended the scene, and I'm like, "Okay, onto the next one." It was like something came over me, and I worked through something through this character. It was an incredible experience to work with people who were so good, and I had to step it up. I had to bring it. John Leguizamo: And you brought it! The reason I got into the film business was to do these kinds of films. Not the big commercial ones; you do that for a paycheck. But these are the ones that are character-driven, that are about the human condition. When they're beautifully written like this, your acting just comes naturally. You don't have to try; you don't have to beat yourself up or depress yourself. You just have to hand yourself over to a project like this.

It's been a big year for Barbies. Were you a big fan? Are you happy about the Barbie revolution right now?

Barbie Ferreira: Hell yeah! It's just so funny because everything was Barbie for a second, and when your name is Barbie, you're kind of like, "Hey! What's up?" But it's not me at all. It's not about me at all. I love the film. It was just so fun, and everything I would want to see when I was a kid and even later in life. I'm happy it happened. But the, "Hello, Barbie" thing and the Barbie everywhere, "Hi Barbie! Hi, Barbie!" It's a tough time to have the name Barbie. It's a tough time now, but it'll pass. We got Barbie, we got [America] Ferrera. I knew what I was doing, you know? Barbie isn't a random nickname.

Bob Trevino Likes It premiered March 9 at SXSW and is currently seeking wider distribution.

Source: Screen Rant Plus