Have you ever been catfished by your dad? James Morosini has. He’s the writer, director, and star of the new film I Love My Dad, which is in theaters and streaming on demand now.
The movie, which Morosini describes as as “almost a modern Mrs. Doubtfire,” follows “an estranged father — played by Patton Oswalt — who catfishes his son in an attempt to reconnect, and the son ends up falling head over heels for the girl that the father has created,” he tells ABC Audio. “And the father now has to figure out an off-ramp to this thing without destroying his son’s hopes and dreams.”
I Love My Dad is based on what actually happened between him and his father when he was around 20 years old.
“I think [we] were fighting [and] I think he had lied about something. I got very upset with him. I decided to block him on social media,” he recalls. “I was going through a tough time, and he was very worried about me and wanted to talk with me about it and I wouldn’t talk with him about it. And then I got home one day, and this really pretty girl sent me a friend request online, and she seemed amazing. And then it turned out to be my dad. [He] had catfished me.”
James says he and his dad have a good relationship now, and the film has only made it stronger.
“The idea of making this movie was really stepping into my dad’s shoes and trying to understand our relationship from his perspective,” he explains. “It was kind of a challenge that I posed to myself to see if I could really take a walk in his shoes and if I could really empathize with where he was coming from.”
Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
