NEWS. . . BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT
Summer is a hugely successful season, but audiences have something new with the arrival of the 2024 action hero: a 90-year-old grandmother, a scooter rider, with a revenge project in Thelma.
For her first (and highly anticipated) leading role, Oscar nominee June Squibb, 94, was given a role that draws comparisons to Tom Cruise, as well as the chance to perform stunts and play the mega movie cliche of walking away. of an explosion. in slow motion.
And it’s whatever prolific actress Squibb, who has worked with Martin Scorsese, Jack Nicholson, Julianne Moore and Al Pacino, always brings out.
For Thelma, written and directed by Josh Margolin after her grandmother nearly scammed her out of $10,000 (£7,750), Squibb took on the challenge of doing her own stunt work.
“I go in with the attitude that I can do anything,” he tells me with a smile on Zoom, during a verbal exchange with Marpasslin and actor Fred Hechinger, who plays his on-screen grandson, Danny.
“It was a lot of fun to do a lot of things, like the scooter, riding with me [co-star] Richard [Roundtree] all the time. It was wonderful! And the other stunts were fun.
It turns out that Squibb was not at all fazed by the challenge of fighting with a motorized scooter, and at top speed, nor by the frankly rough confrontation at the film’s climax.
“For me I started out as a dancer and so physicality is part of what I’ve done in theatre, so it seemed good to do everything,” she says with a shrug.
It’s a privilege to be able to give someone time for an interview, but it’s especially special to have the ability to speak with Squibb.
A true veteran, Squibb has been acting since the 1950s, where she directed in a regional theater before making her Broadway debut in the original 1959 production of Gypsy, starring Ethel Merman.
She made her screen debut in Woody Allen’s 1990 film Alice, appearing in films such as Scent of a Woman, The Age of Innocence, Meet Joe Black, and About Schmidt.
In fact, the star has been prolific for the more than 20 years, racking up credits on TV shows like Curb Your Enthusiasm, Glee, The Big Bang Theory, Shameless, and Grey’s Anatomy, and earning her first Oscar nomination for Alexander Payne’s Nebraska. in 2014 and joined Disney’s roster of broadcasters.
In addition to the positive reception Thelma has earned (it lately scores a notable 99% on review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes), Squibb also has a scene-stealing appearance in the box-set champ Inside Out 2 as Nostalgia.
So what’s it like to have your moment and be hailed as the action star of the summer?
“We’re all so dizzy about what happened with the movie that other people love it. And I think the action [hero tag] is a lot of fun because it’s an action movie and we’re very proud of it, and that’s what you have to see in the summer.
“So everything’s better for us,” he observes with a laugh when I point out that his competition comes from Marvel with Deadpool and Wolverine.
For Thelma, Squibb and Hechinger, who will soon be noticed in Gladiator II, are teamed up through a star-studded supporting cast that includes Shaft actor Richard Roundtree, Malcolm McDowell, Parker Posey and Clark Gregg.
In the film, Thelma and her grandson Danny have a close bond, and the rather lost twenty-something is tasked with keeping an eye on his independent grandmother through his worried parents as he struggles to know what to do with his life.
“I’m not young,” Danny complains at one point, to which Thelma replies, “Well, I’m not old. “
When a scammer calls, posing as Danny and saying he’s been arrested and wants money, she falls for it and sends thousands of dollars to a city mailbox.
However, hell doesn’t have fury like that of a scorned retiree, because when she’s told that the FBI can’t do anything, Thelma sets out on her own “possible” project – encouraged by Tom Cruise – to get the money back, arguing over transportation, an accomplice. and a gun on the road.
A good line of communication is also established between Ben and Thelma from Roundtree through the phone apps connected to their hearing aids.
Hechinger shows that he complains harshly about his own grandmother, who encouraged him as a child and who inspired him with the love for cinema and that he came up with during the filming of Thelma.
“She needs to be invited to each and every one of the movies we are going to see, but in some she says: ‘I like movies, but I don’t like this one. ‘
“I wanted to do anything that she enjoyed and that I could watch with her as well. “
I still can’t extract from Hechinger any data I can glean from him about Gladiator II, where he plays Emperor Caracalla alongside his brother and co-ruler Geta (Stranger Things star Joseph Quinn).
Turns out it’s very little, but he admits that he’s “another boy, of course” from the adorable and slightly passive Danny.
While I think it’s unlikely that Caracalla has such a kind mindset with his grandmother, Hechinger jokes, “You know, I think I can ruin everything. Unfortunately, Caracalla’s grandmother does appear in Gladiator II.
“They’re very, very different characters,” he adds. But I think that’s the wonderful pleasure of playing compared to other people. That’s the point. When you play someone, you have to do it so totally that next time you can play an opposing user and do it totally.
I ask Hechinger and Margolin what they’ve learned from working with someone as experienced (and charming) as Squibb at Thelma.
“It’s funny, it’s hard for me to put it into words because it’s about this kind of practical ingenuity and magic,” Hechinger says. “Just to participate and be in the presence of that is something very deeply inspiring. I got a lot of wisdom about acting and also about life from making this movie.
“It’s hard to put into words,” Margolin admits, adding that “I felt like I had learned a lot, but it was all embedded in my brain in a very sophisticated way. “
However, Squibb is a “consummate professional” in his eyes, who has dazzled him with her preparation.
“She studied everything so meticulously and controlled it to settle down in a uniform, calm, and specific way, and she herself was lovely to be around, and then she also took aim when we were running in such a way that I can see her putting her energies in. in what she wanted. power and not put your power in what she didn’t want.
Margolin observes that it’s about “perfecting a craft” over years of experience and a long career like Squibb’s.
“You have to find that balance between the field and focus, but also authenticity and ease. And it makes it feel easy, which is a very impressive feat and one that I think about often,” he shares.
For Squibb, every role and environment remains a learning experience for her as well.
“I feel like when I take on a job, I hope to become a better actor, maybe even a better user, and God knows I’ve made it with this!She laughed.
She calls Thelma’s script “one of the most productive I’ve ever worked on,” which, coming from someone she’s acted in for more than 70 years, is high praise, while describing the film as “a pleasure to make. “
Squibb said there’s also been a shift in terms of more roles for older actors in recent years.
“I think it’s kind of part of our total culture; I think there’s a greater interest in getting older, and I think that’s moving into movies,” he says, before noting that he just finished “another movie [playing a] 90- year old’.
It is Scarlett Johansson’s first feature film, Eleanor the Great, about a 90-year-old Florida woman who befriends a 19-year-old student in New York. This will be her second leading role.
He also sees 91-year-old Ellen Burstyn reserved and busy after last year’s The Exorcist: Believer and with projects on the horizon.
“So, I mean, it’s there, it’s happening,” Squibb adds of the “pretty wonderful” fact that those kinds of parts are being written now.
For Margolin, the filmmaker explains that it is a quite revealing film because it is complicated “in some ways” but also “it is the simplest tone I have ever dealt with. “
“It became transparent temporarily whether other people agreed, agreed, and if other people disagreed, temporarily disagreed,” he reveals.
“I think because there are a lot of movies made with actors in charge who are in their 80s and 90s, and especially those with some kind of action, it cuts through the BS quite temporarily, to put it simply. “
Squibb admits that he never thought about whether he would continue painting at his age; However, it was the quality of what was presented to him that made him say yes.
“It’s actually the scripts that I get if I need to do it. “
“People keep saying, ‘Well, how long are you going to do this?’I have no concept, I have no concept at all. I guess as long as a script comes along that looks attractive and I can do it on my knees, I’ll say yes!’ he laughs.
Before we separate, I think, along with Squibb, who else in Hollywood will continue to paint at 90 as she does in the future.
As it appears in Thelma, I recommend Tom Cruise with the same motivation as her.
‘That’s how it is! I think I’d check it out anyway.
Thelma is in theaters starting Friday, July 19.
Put us in your feed