At this year’s South by Southwest, writer, producer, and director Tracie Laymon world premiered her first solo feature directorial debut with Bob Trevino Likes It to glowing reviews from both critics and audiences. Inspired by a friendship Laymon found with a stranger when looking for her father online, the film stars Euphoria’s breakout star Barbie Ferreira as the one looking for a connection, Emmy Award-winner John Leguizamo as the one she finds, and French Stewart as Ferreira’s emotional manipulative father in the movie. The film is an acting showcase for all three of them, and will leave you wanting to hit Stewart for the way he treats his daughter.

After the world premiere, Laymon, Leguizamo, Ferreira, and French Stewart joined Collider’s Steve Weintraub in our media studio to talk about the making of the film. The cast had to tap into some intense emotions, and Leguizamo, who’s had roles in over 100 films and television series, says this is the first time he’s played this kind of character.

"I love independent films. It is my favorite genre of filmmaking because it's character driven. It's a storyteller's medium. Tracie's an auteur; she wrote it and directed it. It's always gonna have a handcrafted aspect to it so you can really be yourself. This is a chance for me to be myself because I'm usually sometimes evil, sometimes gangstery, or sometimes too clownish. Whatever it is that I'm becoming, it's not usually me. So this was a chance for me to be like, well that I think I am. I may not be that good of a dad, but I think I try anyway. I feel like my character is really trying to be a great dad.

He's trying to make it up with Lily because he had a situation happen that was really traumatic for him and made him get locked in his emotions and not want to reach out and have friends. He became a shut-in basically with his wife. Tracie and I had to really craft it carefully to make sure that when he's befriending Lily, make sure that people understand that men can have platonic relationships. They can be father figures, and it doesn't have to be sexualized."

Barbie Ferreira Unlocks Something New in 'Bob Trevino Likes It'

This project was a first for Ferreira, as well, in some ways. The actress broke into Hollywood after her memorable turn as Kat Hernandez in Euphoria, then went on to work with Jordan Peele on his 2022 horror, Nope. But this indie project, she tells us, is unlike any of her previous roles. Ferreira explained:

For me, I have my own daddy issues, and I think a lot of us here can relate. You know what I mean? In a weird way this project was actually so natural that I didn't even know I had that in me. Really. Sometimes I would go into set like, "Okay, like, four scenes today." We're indie, so we're cranking them out. I have all these different kind of emotions to go through. I swear every time I would even read the scene with them or alone, it just brought so much emotions to me. Even at the forefront, even like after, and even after like five takes. I've never experienced that. I mean, you know, I'm human. Sometimes I'm so frustrated myself in my trailer I'm like, "Why can't I get there?" But with this project specifically, for some reason it unlocked something in my brain that really helped me as an actor. Having a great cast, too, just helps because you get to feed off that energy. I was trying to be as present as possible, bring my own emotions, which I didn't even know I had really. A lot of them were resurfaced when me and Tracie were having conversations; and even during the scene, right? There's a scene where I didn't really expect to be that emotional, and it just overcame me. I was like, "Okay, I kinda got to get it together because this is not how it's supposed to go." But it ended up working. It was weird.

The group also talked about the way audiences have responded to the film, how mean Stewart is to Ferreira in the movie, how this is one of the rare times Facebook is used for good, how they prepared for their roles, the way the film changed in the editing room, and more. In addition, Ferreira talked about being part of the Faces of Death remake and House of Spoils. For more, hit play in the video above or read the conversation below.

#BobTrevinoLikesIt #BarbieFerreira #JohnLeguizamo

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