Houston Indie Director’s First Feature Film Examines a Beautifully Strange Relationship — The Story of Tracie Laymon & Bob Trevino Likes It

When Houston director Tracie Laymon digs deep into the inspiration for her new movie Bob Trevino Likes It, there’s a buoyancy in her laughter and an emotional honesty that permeates the conversation. The film traces the development of an extraordinary intergenerational friendship, drawn from the director’s own life.  

Now available for streaming on Amazon and Apple, Bob Trevino Likes It captures the beauty of connection and vulnerability among chosen family, celebrating those friends and mentors who have given us unwavering support through thick and thin. Laymon’s debut feature film won both the Grand Jury and Audience Award at SXSW 2024, and she recently signed with Verve. 

“It was an emotional journey that I needed to share,” Laymon says. “I wrote it because I had to. I had to express it. It was originally in a huge part, just to tell this person what he meant to me.” 

The movie details the journey of an effervescent, people-pleasing daughter Lily Trevino, played by Barbie Ferreria, whose confusing and difficult relationship with her narcissistic father Bob leaves her feeling alone and searching for answers. After a tense conversation with her father, he rejects Lily. He doesn’t return Lily’s calls and seemingly goes AWOL.

So what does Lily do? Lily goes on a quest to find her dad on Facebook. Instead, she unwittingly meets and befriends another Bob Trevino, played by John Leguizamo.  

As the film unfolds, her newfound friend Bob shares beautiful random acts of kindness that give Lily strength and support when she needs it most. When Bob shows platonic love and care — from watching shooting a star together to playing with dogs — Lily is transformed by genuine human kindness. Through this healing bond with this replacement Bob, Lily finds a true friend and a father figure.  

The theme of chosen family deeply resonates to Laymon, since her unexpected meeting with a “stranger on Facebook” led to a bond that nurtured her growth. Laymon emphasizes that Bob Trevino Likes It is a work of fiction, but it is drawn from her personal experiences with her dad.  

“It was just an accident. I was trying to connect with my dad,” Laymon tells PaperCity. “I wasn’t looking for chosen family. I put my father’s name on Facebook. I was looking for a biological family, but I happened to find chosen’ family with the same name.

“I accidentally friended another man with the same name. When this stranger started liking my posts and supporting me. Being fatherly, supportive and offering a father figure type, he really had access to my heart.”  

Laymon adds that Bob’s small acts of kindness changed her life. 

“It made me understand that we’re not limited to this biological family that we’re born into,” Laymon notes. “If you don’t have a great biological family, you’re not limited to that. If you just look at the whole world as a potential chosen family, it would be amazing.

“There’s potential in everybody to become important. Healing comes in unexpected ways. How sad would it be if we weren’t open at all to these connections that might be right there in front of you?” 

One truth for Laymon was that these tender-hearted moments when people reach out in kindness reveal the most epic beauty humans can share through film and art.  

“Sometimes you think that something must be monumental to inspire awe,” Laymon says. “I think it’s monumental when you have someone open the door for you. Or someone paying for the coffee — these small acts of kindness.

“I love finding magic in everyday things. The mundane can be monumental, if we can just understand the beauty behind it.” 

Actor Seeking

When selecting the right actor to play Lily, Barbie Ferreira immediately emerged as the natural choice for Laymon. Ferreira has a luminous, self-effacing quality that lights up the screen.

 “Barbie has vulnerability and euphoria,” Laymon says. “Her childlike awe, wit and sense of humor were all amazing to me. You don’t often find those traits in one person. Barbie Ferreira has all those traits in one person. I couldn’t unsee it. I knew she would get it. I knew she would.

“You can see it in her work. She’s self-made — and a powerhouse of an artist and human being. She’s a light.” 

Laymon felt the same way about the Emmy Award-winning John Leguizamo for the role of the newfound friend from Facebook, that repladement Bob. 

“I’ve always been a fan of his work,” Laymon shares. “The one movie I have seen is his portrayal of Raymond Santana Sr. In When They See Us, his work was incredible and nuanced. Then, I saw an interview when he was talking about his son. He got choked up talking about his son, and I got choked up watching him.

“Then, I saw his heart as a father, and I knew he was the one.” 

When Laymon was searching for the right actor to play her real father, she knew her search was over when French Stewart gave a cold read. 

 “I loved being surprised. He blew me away at a cold read of rough draft on Zoom, and I thought “This is done,’ ” Laymon says. “He understands the depth and pain. And he’s also really charming. Narcissists are charming and manipulative. They know how to get what they want and make people feel things.

So French’s charm is key — and also his sense of humor. If he didn’t do them with any sense of humor at all, it would be a lot harder. French understood narcissistic behavior and the tactics that go along with that. And understood that hurt people hurt people — and all the nuances that go along with that.” 

The Personal Story Behind Bob Trevino

The story Laymon unravels is a tender, personal account infused with a lightness, which was important to her. 

“One of the films that influenced me was Little Miss Sunshine,” Laymon says. “It had tough things — like suicide attempts, body shaming and all these real things — but the film is portraying the story with light, hope, sanity, humor. That’s the kind of movie I wanted to make, and I really leaned into that.

“In Little Miss Sunshine, the characters are flawed and loveable. At the end of the day, you have these characters and connections, and their own hope provides the light. No matter what the situation is.” 

For Laymon, making Bob Trevino Likes It turned into a revelatory experience. It even helped her see her own father in a different light.  

“I think it’s about this: Don’t write through your wounds, write through scars,” Laymon says. “My dad passed away in November 2022. Part of the reason that I loved movies is because my dad loved movies. I started writing movies because I thought that would be a way to connect with him and express things that are important to me.

“If he couldn’t hear me in everyday conversations, maybe he could hear me that way and we could talk about the movie.”  

When Laymon remembers the best moments with her dad, talking about movies became a source of connection and catharsis. 

“I feel I turned my generational pain into art,” Laymon says. “That was a gift that my dad gave me. I choose to believe that he would have been proud of using my pain into art. I don’t think he wanted to carry a darkness.” 

Before her dad passed away, Laymon honored her heart and told her father some truths in an emotional goodbye.

“I did have a goodbye with him before he passed,” Laymon notes. “And I told him, in person, that I know he carried a lot of darkness, and I told him that I know that it was passed down from his father. I said, ‘I want you to know that you did a good enough job, and I’m not taking the darkness with me.’

“I saw relief on his face, and his relief made me feel that he did his best. I don’t think he wanted to pass that darkness onto me. I’m very aware of the darkness. I’m choosing the light. I’m choosing to try to do things differently. We’re all flawed, we’re all a little broken.” 

Laymon’s heartfelt support for other emerging Texas actors, screenwriters and directors is informed by her journey to find her authentic voice. 

“It took me a long time to find my voice,” she says. “I was just doing like half my voice. I was doing what I thought people would like, so that I would maximize my chances, because it’s a very hard industry. I learned to lean into my own voice, and you will find your community and you will find your audience.

“If you need to say something and say it as clearly and openly as possible, there are also people who need to hear that. But if you make yourself just like everybody else, you won’t. It is scary to speak on your own, but it’s also worth it.” 

Laymon believes in the cathartic, healing, even transformative impact of movies and art, especially during this time of pivotal change.  

“We’re in this divided time when we’re told we don’t have a lot of power,” she says. “But small acts of kindness really do matter and they can have a butterfly effect on the world. If we all did those things, how powerful it would be, they can have small impacts in the world.” 

For Laymon, one individual’s random act of kindness in her life blossomed into something unfathomably beautiful, forever changing the trajectory of her path. 

“I made this movie that is impacting other people because this stranger was kind to me on the Internet, and it changed my life,” Laymon says. “He never knew that he had changed my life. So how many people can we be kind to, in a day. And how can it have ripple effects out in the world?

“It all matters. If we all do these random acts of kindness, then we can have great impact together.” 

Bob Trevino would certainly approve.