June Squibb chats with ET about landing her first-ever leading role and becoming an action star at 94 with 'Thelma.'
June Squibb is happily stepping into her action star era! When the 94-year-old chatted with ET at a special screening of her action-comedy film, Thelma, hosted at the Motion Picture & Television Fund (MPTF) on Saturday, she gushed about taking on the big screen in a leading role for the first time in her decades-spanning career.
"It's funny 'cause people are asking me [about my first leading role], and to me it's the script," the Oscar nominee tells ET. "I love this script and the fact that it was number one, the starring role, was just sort of the jelly on the toast! It was wonderful, but I really would have done it if they had said, 'Well, can you come and be Thelma for one day on screen?' I would have said yes; she's such a great lady and it's such a wonderful script."
Squibb plays Thelma Post, a feisty and strong-willed 93-year-old grandmother who gets conned by a phone scammer pretending to be her grandson, Danny (The White Lotus' Fred Hechinger). When the police offer no real help, Thelma sets out on a treacherous quest across Los Angeles, accompanied by her friend Ben (the late Richard Roundtree in his final performance) and his motorized scooter, to reclaim what was taken from her -- despite what her daughter, Gail (Parker Posey), son-in-law, Alan (Clark Gregg), might believe.
The feature directorial debut of Josh Margolin is inspired by a real-life experience of Margolin's own grandmother and promises to put a clever spin on movies like Mission: Impossible by shining the spotlight on an elderly grandmother as an unlikely action hero.
Watch the trailer for Thelma below.
Squibb tells ET that she channeled iconic actions stars like Tom Cruise when doing her own stunts alongside Roundtree, confessing that her favorite parts of filming were driving the scooter with the late star.
The actor, best known for his starring role in Shaft, died last October after a brief battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 81.
"The minute I read the script I thought, 'Well, I can't wait to get on that scooter,' and then I got pretty good at it so that helps," Squibb recalls. Reminiscing about working with Roundtree, Squibb admits that she was a fan of the Shaft actor.
"It was fun but it was also a little intimidating because I kept thinking every time I was on that scooter, 'Oh my god, that's Shaft behind me!' But, oh god, I loved him," she shares. "He was just so dear and he wanted to do this film. I think he felt it was a departure from what he'd mostly done so he was very eager to do it. It was something different than he'd usually done especially on film."
Now that Squibb, who also stars in Pixar's Inside Out 2 and recently wrapped filming on Scarlett Johansson's directorial debut, Eleanor The Great, has checked off both a leading role and an action film off her bucket list, what's next?
"I'd love to do a Western. I've done a horror film, I've done all kinds of things, but I've never done a Western, so that would be great fun to do," the actress tells ET. "I would love to work with Alexander Payne again and somebody told me he was thinking about doing a Western so I'll put my word in for him right there," she adds.
Even with such an expansive resume, Squibb says she's still learning at 94 years old. "I'm feeling great and I'm very excited about all the things that are happening. If you ask me why I wouldn't have an answer for you," she says. "I have no idea why all at once everything is happening like this. I guess it's just serendipity, you know, this is my time right now!"
Thelma is out in theaters now.
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