But it wasn’t until this year that Squibb, 94, landed her first leading role in a feature film with “Thelma,” an action-comedy out June 21. She doesn’t seem to mind the long wait. “Everybody has said, ‘Oh June, how wonderful. You deserve it,’” she says. “Even if it had been two scenes, I would’ve said yes, you know? In that respect, doing the leading role is not changing how I work.”
Like Squibb, Thelma Post is a no-nonsense woman. After the character is hoodwinked into sending $10,000 to a phone scammer pretending to be her grandson, she vows to get the money back. It isn’t about getting even, according to Squibb, but about making things right. Thelma steals a mobility scooter from her friend Ben (Richard Roundtree, who died last year at age 81, in his final on-screen performance) and drives it around Southern California in pursuit of the trickster. With the exception of a wheelie, Squibb did a decent amount of the scooter-driving herself — a dedicated performance that earned her critical acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival in January, perhaps the most since her Oscar-nominated turn in Alexander Payne’s 2013 film “Nebraska.”
“I’ve never had a film as beloved as [how] people feel about this,” Squibb says. “It’s wonderful.”
First-time feature director Josh Margolin based the screenplay on the experiences of his own grandmother, also named Thelma Post, who similarly received a phone call from someone pretending to be Margolin, claiming he had gotten into a car accident and hit a pregnant woman. In real life, Post’s family stepped in before she sent any money — but the incident “got my wheels turning,” Margolin recalls, noting that he has always been close to his grandmother and found it “jarring” that their relationship would be used against her.
“It sparked that feeling for me of, like, ‘Oh right, she’s living alone, and she’s in her 90s, and this is a new moment for her,’” he adds. “It slowly became an excuse to write an ode to her and her strength.” (The real Post will turn 104 in July.)
Though Thelma is the victim of a cybercrime, she isn’t painted as a rube. She turns out to be much savvier than the villains believe her to be, and thinks quickly on her feet. Squibb appreciated how Margolin approached the story with “great delicacy and reality.”
“Josh’s grandmother, who’s 103 … she’s on top of things. She really is,” the actress says. “I’m 94, and I really don’t have a problem. It just seemed natural to me that this is how you would do it. [Thelma] is a gritty older woman who’s capable of doing a lot.”
“Thelma” acknowledges the ages of its protagonist and her friend Ben — who joins her on the ambitious mission — but is careful not to slip into parody. “Watching Tom Cruise jump out of a plane is terrifying, but so is watching my grandma get onto a bed,” Margolin says. He aimed to capture “the notion of these little things presenting greater dangers, [while] getting to chuckle at but also be wowed by the tenacity it takes to move through the world when certain things start working against you.” While Roundtree “loomed large” in Margolin’s mind as the action hero John Shaft, for instance, the actor also felt right for the part of Ben because of his ability to broadcast the character’s concern for an aging friend alongside his resolute desire for justice.
Roundtree and Squibb “had a really good thing and really respected each other,” Margolin says. “I think it was the night before we started shooting that he realized she was 92 at the time. He thought they were a little closer in age. He was like: ‘She’s scary. This is intimidating. I can’t — this is insane.’”
As displayed in the family drama “Nebraska,” in which she portrays a grumpy matriarch, Squibb knows how to convey a complex interiority, too. Thelma can be quite stubborn at times, quarreling with Ben and waving away the fears of her daughter and son-in-law (Parker Posey and Clark Gregg). But she also exposes her tender heart while hanging out with her 20-something grandson, Daniel (Fred Hechinger). They watch Mission: Impossible movies together. In one of Hechinger’s favorite scenes, Thelma gives Daniel a marble she has been saving as a gift for him.
“It’s funny how these little things can become so big because of the wonderfulness of the people,” Hechinger says of the peculiar present. The intergenerational bond is the heart of the film and, according to both actors, what sets the story apart. Squibb notes that audience members have told her they’ve never seen a movie like this one. “You say, ‘Why would a young man love his grandmother this much, or want to be with her this much?’” she says. “But it happens.”
Hechinger and Squibb grew close in real life. “When I met June, we clicked pretty instantly,” Hechinger says. “She invited me over, and I got to hang out at hers and meet her two very lovely cats, and we just talked for a long time. It felt like I knew her much longer than I did.” He and Squibb met weekly for dinner while she was in New York this year shooting Scarlett Johansson’s upcoming directorial debut, “Eleanor the Great,” about a woman rebuilding her life after the death of her best friend.
Squibb plays Eleanor, marking her second lead movie role. “I’m not going to do a film if my name isn’t the title,” she jokes of choosing future roles. Now that she’s checked an action flick off her list, she would like to try her hand at a western. “I used to ride when I was younger. I rode quite a bit,” she says. “I guess if they got me on the horse, I could stay on it.”
