June Squibb Lands Leading Role of Comedy Film ‘Thelma’ at 94! What She Had to Say About Her Milestone

After a decades-spanning career as an actress, June Squibb has finally landed her first-ever lead role at 94 years old. She stars in the newly released heartfelt comedy Thelma , which hit theaters on June 21. Squibb plays the titular role of Thelma Post, a grandmother who becomes the victim of a phone scam when a thief calls her posing as her grandson and pleading for $10,000 under the ruse that he has been arrested. Once she realizes she has been scammed, Thelma takes off on a mission to find the scammers and retrieve her money alongside her fellow nursing home resident Ben (the late Richard Roundtree in his final film). Over the course of this journey, Thelma proves that age is not slowing her down. At the same time, she comes to terms with her own flaws including an aversion to letting people help her and a lack of appreciation for her caring family. Keep scrolling to learn more about Squibb, the film and her response to the milestone casting.

What has June Squibb said about starring in Thelma ?

Thelma writer and director Josh Margolin said he wrote the role of Thelma based on his 104-year-old grandmother, specifically with Squibb in mind to play the role, and admittedly didn’t have a backup plan if Squibb were to turn down the project. Little did Margolin know, that was never a concern. “I knew immediately where she was coming from and why,” Squibb said of the character, who is endearingly strong and willful, but also hyper aware of her age.

Squibb shared that while filming Thelma , she pretended  to fall. Her stunt double performed the actual fall, but Squibb spent quite some time lying on the ground while the scene was shot.

“I just thought, ‘Oh God, what if this happened, if I were down like this?’ Because that’s so real now,” she told Vulture of the film. Margolin said his grandma, also named Thelma, suffered a fall much like the one in the film when she lived alone, and found her way back up to her feet through “sheer force of will.”

“She’s spunky,” Squibb said of her character’s inspiration. “I mean, the grit and determination in the film is for real.” And that’s not the only lesson Squibb gleaned from the real Thelma. “I’m going to go Thelma,” she said. “I figure if she could make it to 104, I could make it.”

See Squibb shine in the trailer for Thelma:

A look back a June Squibb’s acting career

Squibb got her start on the stage. She made her Broadway debut in the original production of the musical Gypsy in 1959 alongside Ethel Merman. After seeing her perform, she said her mother encouraged her to settle down, get married and have children, but even then, Squibb — who has become widely known and loved for playing unabashed characters — wasn’t interested in doing what she was told she should. She stayed in New York for almost five decades and continued to make her career on stage in plays, musicals, cabarets and the like.

Squibb was in her early 60s  when she landed her role in Woody Allen’s Alice alongside Mia Farrow and William Hurt. Squibb shared a fitting anecdote about shooting a scene with the latter, who she said kept changing his lines. “Woody started yelling at me, and I had just had it,” she recalled. “And I yelled back, ‘I can’t get the cue.’ I went home and I told my husband, ‘Well, he’s either going to fire me or he is going to love me. I don’t know which.’” Squibb  found the answer when she returned to the set to find that Allen had written her into many additional scenes.

She went on to book smaller roles in films including Meet Joe Black, In and Out and The Age of Innocence . Squibb played a minor role in Scent of a Woman, but director Martin Brest intentionally kept her in the background of pivotal scenes. In 2002, Squibb played opposite Jack Nicholson in Alexander Payne’s About Schmidt, and while her character died within the first half hour of the film, this role propelled Squibb’s move to Hollywood. Payne cast Squibb again in 2013’s Nebraska, and she earned a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Kate Grant, the blunt, uninhibited wife of a man suffering from dementia.
Squibb has also been fortified in television history thanks to her memorable guest-starring roles on long-running hits, appearing in episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm, House, Two and a Half Men, Just Shoot Me! , Girls, The Office, Shameless, Modern Family, ER and Glee .

Keep reading for more entertainment news!

Prince William Dances to ‘Shake It Off’ at the Eras Tour: See the Viral Video of His ‘Dad’ Moves

Kevin Costner Confirms He Won’t Be Returning to ‘Yellowstone’ Season 5: ‘I Loved It’

‘Beetlejuice’ 2 Is Coming! Everything You Need to Know about the Cast and Plot