June Squibb has just joined the ranks of Tom Cruise . Yes, she does her own stunts. The 94-year-old actress is the latest summer action star with her excellent indie film on the 2024 movie schedule , Thelma .
The earnest, but hilarious, movie that follows a grandma who becomes thirsty for revenge on a phone scammer who put her out $10,000 had Squibb surprising the crew (and herself) with just how much physicality she could bring to the role. In one key sequence, June Squibb’s Thelma decides to run off with the adult scooter of her longtime friend Ben (played by the late Richard Roundtree ) at a senior home. When speaking to CinemaBlend about shooting the scene, she recalled it being a blast on set.
In her words: Oh, the chase sequence, isn't that wonderful? I love that. When I zoomed past him in the car, that to me is one of the funniest things in the film. It was great.
And, you know, it was fun in those halls because you're doing the corners, yet you've got a straightaway that you can let it go a little bit. It was just a lot of fun. Thelma marks June Squibb’s first time leading her own flick, and she clearly took every opportunity to make it her own.
The movie from writer-director Josh Margolin is based on his own phone scammer experience with his grandma, albeit without a scooter chase sequence in a senior home. Squibb continued to talk about how that sequence came to be and what it was like filming it, saying: Well, stopping [the scooter] was hard, but I learned how..
