It’s not every day that a 94-year-old woman takes on a leading role – and an action star. But for June Squibb, it’s the reality. “They make me do a lot of TV clips where I say I’m going to kick somebody’s ass,” she says observerlaughing. “It’s fun.” Squibb, who has been an actress for more than 60 years, has earned her starring role in Thelmaa film that was literally made with her in mind.
In the film, written, directed and edited by Josh Margolin, Squibb plays the titular Thelma, a gullible grandmother-turned-vigilante who is scammed out of $10,000 by someone posing as her grandson (played by Fred Hechinger) and decides to go on a quest to reclaim their lost money.
For Margolin – who based the film on his own grandmother’s story – Squibb was always the person he imagined for the role. He just didn’t know how to get the script to her. Fortunately, Beanie FeldsteinSquibb’s friend and former co-star in the 2019 drama The peoplewas able to help because she was friends with Margolin’s family. “She texted me, ‘I’ll send you a script.’ And I texted back, ‘Okay.’ And that was it,” Squibb recalls in her trademark sweet sing-song voice.
Although Squibb plays a fictionalized version of Margolin’s grandmother in the film (in reality, the family intervened before she fell for a senior citizen scam), she only met her a few weeks ago after seeing the film. “She was so nice to me and said, ‘You’re not an actress, you are “Thelma,” Squibb recalls the interaction, “I couldn’t give you higher praise.”
This comment meant the world to Squibb, because she committed to the role of Thelma. She was so confident in her character – and the film – that she did her own stunts, including climbing stairs (no mean feat for someone in the 90s) and weaving through an antique shop over fallen lamps and under chandeliers. As Margolin post it on Indiewire She embraced “the“I’m the Tom Cruise of everything, doing everything myself and throwing myself into it as far as I can.” Of course, taking on such a physically demanding role wasn’t easy. She had to learn how to use a scooter that her character borrows from her boyfriend Ben (Richard Roundtree). “Once I learned how to use it, you could do it by turning the handlebars (and) that’s how you got fast, it was pretty easy,” says Squibb. “You had to learn how to stop it because when you stopped it would jolt forward a couple of feet and I learned that.” In fact, she became “very good” at it. But there was one particular move that she found difficult – sleeping bags (or Rolling over a mattress like an action star sliding over the hood of a car)– which she does at the house of her friend Mona (played by Bunny Levine). But that didn’t stop her. “I just felt like I could do it, and I did it,” she laughs.
That innate determination was central to her career, too. No matter how long it took her to become a star, Squibb never wanted to give up. “I think it was always, ‘This is what I do,'” she notes.
Born in Illinois, Squibb began her career in musical theater, She made her Broadway debut in 1959 in the musical Gypsy (She played Electra, one of the strippers who sings “You Gotta Get a Gimmick”). It wasn’t until 1990 that she got her first film role in Woody Allen’s romantic comedy AliceFrom there, she landed supporting roles in films such as the 1997 comedy On off (1997) and the fantasy romance from 1998 Meet Joe BlackBut it was the 2002 dramedy About Schmidt This brought about a change in her career, in which she was able to assert herself alongside Jack Nicholson in the role of his distant and annoying wife Helen Schmidt. “TThat gave me some legitimacy, and they brought me to Hollywood for the premiere,” she recalls. After that, she had a resurgence in television roles such as HE, Just shoot me, Curb your enthusiasm“Let’s just say,” she joked. “I was constantly getting work.” Her career got another boost in 2013 when she starred in the adventure comedy Nebraskawhat you have an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role as a raunchy Midwestern matriarch married to Bruce Dern. “You breathe differently afterward,” she admits. Since then, she has steadily expanded her resume, starring in projects ranging from the Adam Sandler-Netfiix comedy Halloween by Hubie to the NBC crime dramedy Good girls. In addition to the publication of Thelma, Squibb also has the box office in the animated comedy Inside Out 2as the voice of Nostalgia, a grandmother with grey hair and pink glasses who represents one of the new emotions of the prepubescent Riley.
It is no surprise that Squibb’s next project represents a departure not only from her recent transformation into an action heroine, but also from her other projects. She will star in Scarlett Johansson’s Directorial debut, Eleanor the Greatwhere she plays a ninety-year-old who befriends a 19-year-old. It is a role that she finds relatable, considering that she has a handful of cross-generational friendships. From filming Thelma Together, she and Hechinger have become quite close. Squibb and his parents, who had all met the night before our interview, decided that “his mom and dad would take care of him when he was home in New York, but when he was in LA, I would take care of him.” Chris Colferwhom Squibb met when she was Joy in 2014, is “one of my closest friends in the whole world.” “I remember my 90th birthday, Chris was there and people kept asking, ‘June, who’s that young guy over there?'” she laughs, adding, “He’s part of my family.”
While Thelma may seem like the fulfillment of a lifelong dream, but Squibb has others. For one thing, she would like to make a western. She would also “love” to work with Robert De Niro. “I know his background, his training and I think he’s someone I would work well with, so I would like that,” she says.
At the moment she is concentrating on Thelma– and her upcoming trip to Hawaii. “We swim, we eat, we go to the wonderful restaurants, we go to the Big Island near Kona and we take a lot of day trips and see everything,” she exclaims. “I love it.”
