He has now made a film about his story
An actor has told the story of how he was catfished by his own dad on Facebook.
James Morosini was 20 years-old when he received a message off a girl called Becca on Facebook, with the two going on to talk every day and develop an online relationship.
However, after he realised that 'Becca' had the same email address as his father, Morosini realised the shocking truth.
It turned out that his dad had posed as the girl in order to reconnect with his estranged son.
Morosini has now made a film based on his experience, entitled
I Love My Dad. The film stars Patton Oswalt as the father and Morosini as his son and premiered at the SXSW film festival in Texas last Saturday (March 12), winning the Narrative Feature Competition Award.
Speaking to
The Daily Beast about his decision to make a film about his bizarre story, the 31-year-old said: "I took the kernel of what actually happened and extrapolated upon that, and used my imagination to push it to the furthest degree of, ‘What if it had gone even further in this direction?’
“Or, you know, what if I hadn’t found out? Or what if it had taken me longer to find out?”
[caption id="attachment_323905" align="alignnone" width="2048"]
James Morosini, 31, won the Narrative Feature Competition Award at the SXSW Film Awards for 'I Love My Dad', his film loosely based on his real-life experience (Rich Fury/Getty)[/caption]
In the film, the characters end up going as far as sending each other erotic messages and sexting, something that didn't actually happen to Morosini, who has starred in shows such as HBO's
The Sex Lives of College Girls and
American Horror Story: Roanoke.
Explaining how he was able to make a film about something so personal, the actor said it was because he was able to recognise how bizarre his experience was, describing the film as a "blend of something really weird, but also beautiful in a bizarre way."
Morosini says he believes the experience actually brought him and his father closer together, with the pair reuniting during therapy.
They had already decided to do therapy before Morosini realised the email addresses of 'Becca' and his father were the same.
He describes the moment he found out about the catfishing as "us hitting rock bottom in our relationship," but admits that it forced them to "confront some of the foundational problems of our relationship."
Morosini says that he and his dad now have a "great relationship" because the experience forced them to "talk about it."
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