Phil Elam figures he’s been acting since he was 6 years old, in a church holiday production.
Now he’s making his feature film debut in “Bob Trevino Likes It,” opening in metro area theaters this weekend after winning two dozen awards on the festival circuit, including two top prizes at last year’s South By Southwest Film & TV Festival.
Elam, a Ferndale resident who also performs music under the name Coco Bean, considers the role an arrival, but is quick to note that “so much of it is all (from) the training and classes and studying. I couldn’t have gotten here without it.”
The Florida-born Elam, who moved to Detroit when he was 4 years old, has a number of independent film credits, including his own “Swing Low.” He’s been studying at the 1st Team Actors Studio in Cleveland and filmed his audition for “Bob Trevino” with his partner, in the basement of their house. Director-writer Tracie Laymon chose him from more than 50 finalists and was happy enough with his performance — as “an office manager who’s having a really, really bad day” — that she added another scene for him in the film.
“It was a great experience,” Elam says of his one-day shoot in Kentucky. “The energy and sincerity and the loving vibe on the set was great. You didn’t feel like you were working at all. It felt like you were creating a piece of art.”
The film, based on Laymon’s own life, stars Barbie Ferreira as a woman trying to connect with a distant father (French Stewart) who, in her search for him connects with another Bob Trevino (John Leguizamo) for a relationship that’s more genuinely loving and rewarding.
“Bring your Kleenex,” Elam advises.
As the film opens, however, Elam is on to his next project, another feature called “Last Shop on Walnut” that’s starring Peter Lawson Jones (“A Man Called Otto,” “Detroit 1-8-7”), who’s one of his instructors in Cleveland.