This week on the Awards Tour podcast, our host, Jacqueline Coley, sits down with the incomparable June Squibb, the 94-year Oscar-nominated actress who captured America’s heart after her scene-stealing performance in Nebraska alongside Bruce Dern. This year, she is back on the award circuit with her first starring role playing Thelma in Thelma, the Magnolia Pictures broad action comedy about a grandmother who goes on a John Wick-style revenge adventure after hackers scammed her out of $10k. Strutting into awards season with her first starring role after nearly 70 years within the industry, Squibb is riding high and reflecting on her career.
We spoke to her about her humble beginnings on stage as an accomplished tap dancer, how a local night out at a bar gave her the hunger to be a performer, and why, at nearly 95 years of age, she’s still looking for new and exciting roles. This includes her next project, an appearance in the American Horror Story universe for mega-producer writer Ryan Murphy. So, enjoy this preview of our chat with June Squibb.
Jacqueline Coley for Rotten Tomatoes: What was that like when you got the call about Thelma and knew that it’d be your first lead after a 70+ year career in entertainment?
June Squibb: Well, it’s funny (laughs). I didn’t really get a call. I read the script first, and it was sent to me, and I just thought, ‘I’ve got to do this.’ And I say, if it had been one day’s work, I would’ve said yes to it. It was just the script itself was so beautiful and so right, written so well, and I think that did it more than anything, except I realize now, when you’re doing a leading role, you get more time in front of the camera. So things that maybe before you said once, you say three times, but I prepared the same. I always do. So, it wasn’t any significant change for me.
RT: Could you tell us about when you spoke with the director and what he wanted you to bring to Thelma? It’s based on his real-life grandmother.
Squibb: I got the script through Beanie Feldstein. She’s a family friend of Josh’s [Margolin], and he said he would like me to do it, but he didn’t know how to get a script to me, so she just texted me and said, ‘I’m sending you a script.’ And I texted back, and that was it. We got the script-to-be then, and I read it, and I just felt, well, I want to do this immediately. I had never met him. I didn’t know anything. And so, the first time he called me, he said, we laugh about it now, he said, ‘I thought we’d have to talk you into this.’ And I said, ‘I’m in. I’ll do it.’ I mean, it just never occurred to me to do anything else.
Watch the video for the full interview with June Squibb.
Thelma
(2024)
is available now on VOD.
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