The Big Picture

Welcome to a new episode of Collider Ladies Night with
Thelma
star June Squibb.
During her Ladies Night conversation with Collider’s Perri Nemiroff, Squibb revisits the early days of her acting career on the stage, and pinpoints the screen credits that made the biggest impression on her.
She also goes into detail on why she had the utmost faith in
Thelma
director Josh Margolin, even as a first-time filmmaker.

June Squibb is a legend. She’s a legend with a slew of stage experience, dozens and dozens of film and TV credits to her name, and an Academy Award nomination for her performance in Nebraska. However, it wasn’t until just now, in her 90s, that she finally scored her first lead role in a film, Josh Margolin’s feature directorial debut, Thelma. An absurdity, in my opinion. But, that’s not how Squibb looks at it. As she noted during our Collider Ladies Night conversation, “It’s never occurred to me that what I was doing was not the most important role in the film.” This year, however, the most important role in the film put her at #1 on the call sheet.

Not only did Squibb finally get the chance to headline a film, but she plays the title character in one of the best movies of 2024. In Thelma, Squibb plays Thelma Post, a 93-year-old woman living alone in Los Angeles. Her grandson, Danny (Fred Hechinger), checks on her often, but not often enough to stop her from giving up $10,000 in a scam. Determined to fix the mistake herself, Thelma sets off with her friend Ben (Richard Roundtree) and his scooter to track down her money.

After celebrating its world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival and amassing a slew of wildly positive reviews leading up to its summer 2024 release, Thelma is now in the midst of an awards season push, specifically for Squibb’s lead performance. While celebrating Thelma’s success, Squibb visited the Collider Ladies Night studio to walk us through her journey from stage to screen, and to discuss what it was like finally getting the opportunity to headline a movie.

Frank Oz Voiced Miss Piggy While Making ‘In & Out’ and It Meant the World to June Squibb
“It was a film that meant a lot to me, and that scene meant a lot to me.”

Image via Paramount Pictures

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After years of stage work, Squibb made her film debut in 1990’s Alice. From there, it was a steady stream of screen work, but Squibb opted to pinpoint two key titles — one that taught her a lot about what she valued in a filmmaking experience, and then another that confirmed the film industry valued her as a screen actor.

“
In & Out
. Frank Oz was directing. We had a lot of wonderful, wonderful people in the cast, and certainly, from each one of them, I think I learned something, something different from each one of them. It was a long process … We shot forever. We shot forever and ever and ever. [Laughs] So I got a lot of different variations of the same thing. I think
I probably learned more on that film than any of the others
, certainly in that area of my career.”

Wondering which scene took the longest to film? It was actually the one that included one of the most memorable lines of the entire movie. Squibb recalled:

“We were shooting the scene where I had that wonderful line, ‘My husband has three testicles.’ [Laughs] It was about two o’clock in the morning and we were still shooting, and Debbie Reynolds was still there. They had told her she could go home and she said, ‘Oh no, I’ll stay!’ All the women were still there, and Frank Oz was directing, and we were all just sort of there together, I remember, on set. It was going well, and he was pleased, and I turned to him, and I said, ‘Have you ever done Miss Piggy for anyone?’ And in Miss Piggy’s voice, he said, ‘No, and I won’t!’
He went through the whole Miss Piggy thing for all of us sitting there at two o’clock in the morning, and for some reason that has meant more to me
, and it was a film that meant a lot to me, and that scene meant a lot to me.”

Image via Collider

Squibb’s iconic line of dialogue in that scene proved to be much more than a winning laugh in the film. It was a hugely successful hilarious beat that also upped her collaborators’ faith in her as a comedic screen actor.

“[Frank Oz] and Scott Rudin told me that they had done a test — this was early on; we were still shooting — but they tested some of this stuff, and that scene, my line, got this tremendous laugh, and
there was a kind of respect then from them, like, ‘Boy, she could do this!’
There were so many things in that film, but it made a difference in my life.”

Squibb’s In & Out director may have been one of the first to recognize and embrace Squibb’s potential on screen, but eventually, many more would follow suit, especially after she worked on 2002’s About Schmidt opposite Jack Nicholson.

“I did
Alice
and then
Scent of a Woman
and then
Age of Innocence
, and all at once, people kept saying to me in New York, ‘Well, you’re a screen actress.’ I was like, ‘What?’ I didn’t know what this meant, really. After those three films, there was a shift. Then I think
I had a big shift after
About Schmidt
, and that was a sort of legitimacy in the film industry
that I hadn’t had before. All at once, I could sense this. I could realize it from people’s attitudes toward me.”

June Squibb Has a Secret Weapon to Help Her Pinpoint the Perfect Projects to Take
“I can’t do it without her.”

One of the biggest attitude shifts Squibb would go on to experience? How things change once you’ve been nominated for an Academy Award. In 2014 Squibb was nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role for playing Kate Grant in Alexander Payne’s Nebraska.

“I enjoyed it. I think some people don’t, but I did. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the Oscar luncheon, and
I still enjoy tremendously seeing ‘Oscar nominee’ after my name
. I take it that I have been recognized, and it’s nice.

A nomination perk Squibb didn’t quite expect? The fact that it’d essentially end her days of having to audition for roles.

“The big thing, of course, is you don’t audition anymore [laughs], and you knew that. That’s kind of wonderful. I was 84, I guess, when the Oscar nomination came along, and I had been auditioning my whole life. I auditioned for years in New York, and then even out here I auditioned some. To be told you’ll never audition — and I didn’t know this; this came as a perk to me because I didn’t know this — it was wonderful. All at once, my agent was calling and saying, ‘Well, they would like you to do …’ And
I was like, ‘No audition?’ It really hit me that this was important
, you know?”

Not having to audition puts a significant amount of power in Squibb’s hands when it comes to choosing projects to be part of. That’s when she turns to a trusted friend, someone who Squibb is proud to have in her corner reading all of her scripts.

“This is a very close friend of mine, Kitty McMillan. Her husband was Ken McMillan. I don’t know if you remember his work or not. He was a wonderful actor. I’ve known her for years and years and years, and she has worked many times with agents. She’s worked with casting directors, she’s worked with writers, she’s helped writers. She will proofread for writers and things like that. So, she has a background. She was a dancer originally. We worked together years ago in musicals, and
I just feel that she has an understanding of what is important to me and what will most be the best for me
, and so she reads all my scripts.”

June Squibb Found ‘Thelma’ Through This ‘Booksmart’ & ‘Lady Bird’ Actress
“I knew Beanie wouldn’t lead me astray.”

In addition to McMillan, Squibb has amassed an impressive rolodex of close friends and collaborators in the industry who are determined to put the right projects on Squibb’s radar. One of those people is Squibb’s The Humans’ co-star, Beanie Feldsteinwho was on Collider Ladies Night earlier this year for Drive-Away Dolls. In fact, Feldstein is the one responsible for getting Josh Margolin’s Thelma script in Squibb’s hands.

“I read that script — I had never met [Josh]. I got it through Beanie Feldstein.
I knew Beanie wouldn’t lead me astray
, and she she told me, this was a family friend’s and to read the script, and I just had to do it. To me, a script is like a bible, really. This is what I study. This is what I decide on, if I’m gonna do something or not.”

Something that didn’t factor into Squibb’s decision to do Thelma? The size of the role.

Even after being a force in this industry for many years and racking up a wealth of accomplishments, Squibb had never been #1 on the call sheet of a feature film. When Thelma first debuted at Sundance back in January, that particular subject was a very hot topic of conversation, with many sharing my own confusion; how did it take this long? Turns out, that’s something Squibb herself never even considered.

“You see, I don’t look at it like that. [Laughs] I really don’t. I think many people do, but
it’s never occurred to me that what I was doing was not the most important role in the film
, no matter what it was. [Laughs] To me, it’s what the role is and what it’s saying to me, and how much I want to do it or how much I don’t want to do it. I think it’s wonderful. I don’t know why
Thelma
came along. Who knows why these things happen? And I’m thrilled! And as I said, I get to spend more time in front of the camera. But I’ve always thought of myself as a character actor. When I was younger, I wasn’t even an ingénue ever. Ever. I mean, I stunk at that kind of work. I always had a role that had a little something to it, a little perky to it, or something, and so that’s what I’ve always thought of myself. I’ve never thought I’ve lost out on anything.”

Related June Squibb’s Comedy ‘Thelma’ Is Actually Based on a True Story It’s real life combined with ‘Mission: Impossible’.

Squibb certainly has never lost out on anything. She only continues to gain — and give. At a 98% on the Tomatometer, Thelma is one of the most well reviewed films of 2024, a hugely charming thriller that’s captivating moviegoers of all ages, and bringing families together. Squibb proudly noted:

“
So many young people come up to me and have seen it, and they either say they took their mother, they took their grandmother
, or they want to take their mother back, they want to take their grandmother back. I think it’s sort of intergenerational, and that’s kind of amazing. I was surprised at the young people that really loved it. Not surprised, but it’s like, ‘Wow, we
are
touching people.’”

Eager to hear more from Squibb on her journey as an actor and her experience making Thelma? You can watch her full Collider Ladies Night interview in the video at the top of this article, or you can listen to the conversation in podcast form below:

When 93-year-old Thelma Post gets duped by a phone scammer pretending to be her grandson, she sets out on a treacherous quest across the city to reclaim what was taken from her.Release Date January 18, 2024 Director Josh Margolin Runtime 97 Minutes

Thelma is currently streaming on Hulu.

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