She made headlines a decade ago, when her portrayal of the mother of the protagonist of Nebraska fascinated audiences and left her with an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress when she was already 84 years old. And although on March 2, 2014 she lost to Lupita Nyong'o, as had happened a couple of months before at the Golden Globes, but with Jennifer Lawrence, June Squibb knew how to take advantage of that accolade to receive more work proposals than never.
And although it has taken him a while to find the opportunity of his life, this year we will see him in his first leading role in Thelma, the film by newcomer Josh Margolin that participated in the official competition at the Sundance Festival, receiving very good reviews from sent by The Guardian and The Hollywood Reporter, and was acquired shortly after by the small distributor Magnolia for commercial release in the United States.
Shot when June was 93, the film has been described as an action comedy, inspired, with its limitations, by the Mission: Impossible franchise. The actress plays a recent widow who fights so that her daughter (Parker Posey) does not send her to a nursing home. And although he doesn't get along very well with her, he has a charming relationship with her grandson (Fred Hechinger, who became known in the first season of The White Lotus), a twenty-something who is a little lost in the world.
When one day she receives a call from him telling her that he needs her to send him $10,000 in cash, she doesn't realize that he is actually a scammer, and she arranges how to get it to him with a supposed lawyer, played by Malcolm McDowell himself.
Obviously, upon learning that she has been scammed, she receives the inevitable scolding from her daughter. Determined to show him that she can still solve things alone, she sets out to catch those who have deceived her, accompanied by her late husband's best friend, Ben, a role played by Richard Roundtree in his last job in front of the cameras before his death. at 81 years old. He is the one who agrees to lend him, although reluctantly, her handicapped tricycle.
From that moment on, an adventure deliberately inspired by Mission Impossible will begin, emphasized by a soundtrack inspired by Lalo Schiffin's famous theme. Margolin was inspired by something similar that happened to her grandmother, who lent her name to Squibb's character, although in the real story she did not send the money.
In an article published by Variety, the director explained his reasons for suggesting the comparison: “Tom Cruise jumping out of a plane is as dangerous as my grandmother climbing into her bed,” to which he added: “I wanted to deal with Thelma's mission. with the same intensity with which Ethan Hunt risks everything chasing the villain across the planet.” And although the plan was for the old woman not to do her stunts, June did not want to miss the opportunity to stand out in a scene in which she must steal Ben's handicapped tricycle, and she did not accept that a body double replace her: “ They didn't expect me to be the one to maneuver it. They were really worried about me, because they thought he was going to kill me. But I didn't even think about it, as soon as they told me that I had to take Richard's vehicle, I jumped," Squibb explained.
Although it might seem like she has done better in recent years, the truth is that June has worked incessantly since she debuted in the theater at the age of 16: “I have always been a character actress, even at that time.” age. I was never very good at playing the ingenue. I’ve done these kinds of roles forever, and they’ve just gotten older as I’ve done them,” she reflected in an interview to promote Nebraska a decade ago. That explains why Thelma is her first leading role in her seven-decade career, although it won't be her only one.
After passing through Sundance, she left to film Eleanor, Invisible, Scarlett Johansson's directorial debut in which she will once again have the lead role. And although she explains that she has already turned 94 when the Variety reporter asks her about her future, everything seems to indicate that as long as her body holds up, she will continue working. She will soon begin promoting the second part of Inside Out, in whose original version she voices a character, and she also has another film awaiting release, Lost
