Warning: SPOILERS for Thelma.Thelma is a touching comedy inspired by true events. Just like in the film, writer/director Josh Margolin’s grandmother, Thelma, was almost tricked into sending money to someone pretending to be her grandson (unlike in the film, Margolin’s family intervened before the money could be sent). The director took that experience, his relationship with his grandmother, a healthy dose of creative license and mixed them into what would quickly become a surprise hit.
To portray the fictionalized version of her grandmother, Margolin hired veteran stage actress June Squibb. Thelma is the first leading role for Squibb, 94, who is also known for her work on projects including Inside Out 2, Nebraska, and About Schmidt. Thelma from Screen Rant The reviewer called Squibb “truly excellent” in the role and highlighted how her performance grounds a story about a woman determined to get her money back despite being excluded due to her age.
Screen speech spoke with June Squibb and Josh Margolin about their work on Thelma. Squibb discussed what brought her to the character and her performance as Thelma, as well as the importance of the types of multigenerational relationships portrayed in the film. Margolin revealed the real Thelma’s thoughts on the film and detailed some important moments in the plot. Squibb and Margolin shared what projects they would like the other to tackle next.
June Squibb reflects on her lasting impression of Thelma
“I loved it and I’m very proud of it”
Screen Rant: June, you’re so busy. You’ve done six things since the film came out. What marked you most Thelma since you finished?
June Squibb: I think the script. It was a wonderful script, and every time I see the film, I think about the script – about reading it and getting to know it in that way. But I love it and I’m very proud of it.
Do you remember how deeply involved in the script you were when you said, “This is obviously a great project”?
June Squibb: I think I read a paragraph and went in. I’m serious. I just knew immediately. I just loved the script and knew, “This is something I need to do.”
Daniel is “very” based on director Josh Margolin
Certain aspects of the character came from Margolin’s own “bank of insecurities”
Josh, we know Thelma is based on your grandmother. How much is Daniel based on you?
Josh Margolin: I would say a pretty decent amount. Some of the facts of his life aren’t exactly mine, but the things he’s going through and the things he’s coming to terms with throughout the film are pulled from my own bank of insecurities and the things that were on my mind when I I was writing. the film – many of which were about aging, autonomy, and my own grandmother entering this new phase of her life, just as I entered a new phase of mine. He is largely, I would say, a cipher for me, with some facts about his life adjusted to the needs of the film.
Loving the script and knowing the real Thelma made the project easy for Squibb to relate to
“I knew what we wanted from this”
June, this film beautifully tackles things like aging and mortality. Were there ways you hoped to ensure this happened as best as possible?
June Squibb: No, I didn’t think about it because I felt like it was in the script. I felt like he put it out there and it was going to be filmed and that he and I knew what we wanted with it.
Josh Margolin: I think we went into this with a pretty similar sensibility, and I was at least relieved to know that June felt that way. I tried to extract a lot from my grandmother’s real life and the conversations I had with her. I was trying to use that as a north star for all these things in particular. I took the June signing as a vote of confidence that something was resonating there. I was relieved to know so.
I saw that you felt an affinity with this character, but was there anything about Thelma that was more difficult to relate to?
June Squibb: I don’t think there was anything difficult to relate to. I think some things, physically, were not easy, but they were also doable.
Josh Margolin: I think you and Thelma share some DNA.
June Squibb: I think so too. I met her, I love her and I see who she is. I saw who she was through the script, but Josh also sent me some little footage that he had filmed of her going to the store, having a birthday party and things like that, so I had an idea of who the woman was. And I knew that she was from New York and had come to Los Angeles with her husband and he was a filmmaker. I knew a lot about her, but we didn’t dwell on it. We didn’t really talk about it much.
Josh Margolin: Sometimes I felt like that was left unsaid, and I think there was a reason why, for me, June was the only person I could imagine playing the role. I’m glad she felt the same way, but there was something that felt connected there in terms of courage and tenacity, but also spirit and thoughtfulness and vulnerability. It felt like the right fit somehow.
The real Thelma saw the film and found it “surreal”, says Margolin
“Luckily, she really liked it.”
Josh, I read that the real Thelma saw this. What was her reaction and did she have any notes?
Josh Margolin: She saw it and, luckily, she really, really liked it. It would have been distressing to discover otherwise. I don’t think she made any notes that I remember, but I think she thought it was kind of surreal and strange. I think there are times when it’s a little difficult for her to process the fact that it’s her, or that it’s about her.
We filmed in her condo and it’s her real name, and there’s so much of her life in the film that I think there was a bit of a “Wow” – a journey for her. But now that she’s seen it a few times, I think she was finally also able to watch it as the love letter to her and feel it too. That was really good.
Margolin and Squibb talk about making the most of generational divides
Squibb Will Lean Into Another Age Gap in Scarlett Johansson’s Eleanor the Great
Josh, you draw a lot of humor from the generational divide. I could imagine that with a different actor, a different script, or a different direction, these things might seem mean. Did you find specific ways that made [those scenes] were they still sweet and funny and not punching at all?
Josh Margolin: That’s something we think about a lot, actually. A lot of it was just about treating things truthfully — never cutting it off and revealing, “Hey, look, this piece of land or this step is really really small and it’s hard for her,” or something like that. The language of film has always been closely linked to your perspective and your subjective experience of moving through the world. For me, it takes real courage, courage, and bravery to do everyday things, and I think we all have that in different ways.
These tropes could be too broad if you leaned into the joke or tried to make the language of the film mock, but for us, I think the guiding principle was always to play it sincerely and let the inherent comedy or comedy to be prepared for mistakes, but also to never lose what is at stake. I think the film kind of lives and dies by how much we buy into the stakes. Even though they are admittedly small compared to some action films, they are big on these people’s lives and their experiences. Always letting that be a guiding light, I think, helped us follow that tone all the time.
June, I saw you’re playing Scarlett Johansson [directorial debut] Eleanor the Greatwhich also features a friendship across a large age divide. Is there something about this type of relationship that you think is important to show people?
June Squibb: Oh, yes. I have young friends and people always say, “What do you tell them? How do you talk to them? This is ridiculous. Of course you have things to say and talk to them [about]. The more rules we put in our lives, the more ridiculous it becomes.
Margolin explains the choice to cast Malcolm McDowell as Thelma’s main villain
“It was important for him to be the other side of the coin”
Josh, something that surprised me on my first viewing of this film was [that]In the end, we meet the villain and it is Malcolm McDowell who is a kind of colleague of Thelma. Why did it feel important for that character to be similar to her in terms of her stage in life?
Josh Margolin: For me, it was important for him to be the other side of the coin, in a way. He was a kind of darker expression of independence at all costs – of “I can do this on my own. I stuck myself in this lamp and antique store, and that’s not enough anymore, so I’m turning to these cons and these scams.
I wanted the difference between the two to be that she has someone and he doesn’t. I think the idea of putting them in a similar age range, or at a similar time, felt quite resonant and interesting. Obviously he has someone on the team to help him with these negotiations and with the technology, which later plays into that, but I thought there was something hopefully unexpected and thematically resonant about him being the other side of the coin – the one pushed. -very far from “autonomy at all costs”.
Squibb reflects on not starting his film career until he was 60
She would have liked to play younger characters, but “she had a wonderful career in theater.”
June, I read that you started making films when you were sixty. Clearly you’re busier than most people, but do you ever wish you’d started acting on screen sooner?
June Squibb: No. Sometimes I think about how fun it would be to play some of the younger characters in film, but I’ve had a wonderful career in theater. I worked in New York for years and did Broadway [and] Off-Broadway. This is kind of a life of its own, and I’m so glad I had it. So I think it’s kind of both. I’m not sorry because my life was great before, but sometimes I also feel like, “I’d like to do a Cagney & Lacey” or something, and I was already too old when I started. film.
Squibb and Margolin promote each other’s future prospects
“I would love to see June in a Western”
Is there a type of project each of you would like to see the other do next?
Josh Margolin: I might leave June here because I know something she’s interested in and I think it would be great. I know she wants to do a Western, and I, for one, would love to see June in a Western.
June Squibb: Oh, yes. That would be fun. And I want you to do what you’re writing about because I know that’s what you’re interested in.
About Thelma
When 93-year-old Thelma Post is scammed by a phone scammer pretending to be her grandson, she sets out on a treacherous journey across the city to get back what was taken from her. The film stars beloved stage and character actor June Squibb and was written and directed by Josh Margolin.
You can stream Thelma on Hulu now.