Thelma Post is a 93-year-old grandmother who loses $10,000 to a con artist on the phone. With help from a friend and his motorized scooter, she soon embarks on a treacherous journey across Los Angeles to reclaim what was taken from her.
Not the most likely action narrative, but it’s the perfect genre entry for writer/director Josh Margolin, who based his debut feature Thelma loosely on that of his own grandmother and her subsequent love for the Mission: Impossible series.
Following a rapturous reception at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Thelma is set to mobility scoot her way into Australian theatres this week, and to coincide Peter Gray spoke with Josh about what is fact and fiction in his film, letting 94-year-old June Squibb perform her own stunts, and scoring the seal of approval from one Tom Cruise.
I was lucky enough to see this film as part of Sundance this year. I absolutely adored it! Coming out of Sundance, the response was so universally positive. How did that feel, knowing you’ve given your all with this film and that other people like it too?
It was really cool, and really surreal and kind of a relief. Not that we were expecting it to ever go as well as it did, but it’s that thing where you’re working on a movie and you’re in a cave for so long. You let it out for little bits of sunlight to get feedback and people’s opinions, but it really is one long gesture, and at the end of it you just have to rip the band-aid off and really hope people will connect to it and enjoy it. So it was really surreal and heartening to see it connect with people. And Sundance was such a dream for us.
I understand this film originated from an unfortunate scamming situation involving your grandmother, but I’m assuming it didn’t quite go the same way as the film. I’d like to think she didn’t get scammed. That’s an elaboration within the film?
Yes, there was a real scam incident where she got tricked. My family got tricked. Everybody panicked, but luckily we were able to get in touch (with her) before she sent the money. In real life it went up to her almost sending it. It was a real nail biter of a situation. The movie was born of imagining what might have happened if she had sent it and then set out on her own to get (the money) back.
I’d be correct in saying Mission: Impossible is a favourite action film of yours? Going off its prominence in this story…
Oh, yeah, it’s definitely a favourite. That whole series is. I love those movies and, you know, always eagerly await the next instalment in however many years. But yeah, it was a big inspiration for the movie, just in terms of that ethos of doing it yourself. That seems to be guiding a lot of Tom Cruise’s recent feats. It was just something about the DNA of that and the awe of seeing someone do something themselves that’s kind of unexpected, or beating the odds in some way. It was something that felt weirdly related to my grandma for me and watching her move through the world, albeit on a different scale.
Do you have to get permission to mention the film or Tom Cruise in that manner?
We did, and we were very, very lucky to actually get Tom’s permission to use the clip. I think he was shooting Dead Reckoning Part Two, or whatever they’re calling the latest one, but he was on set and we managed to send him an excerpt of the scene in which he’s mentioned, just for context.
Then we sent him a clip of the table read that we did on Zoom of that scene, and he very kindly gave us permission to use it, which was amazing. Then we took that basically to Paramount, saying that we had him signing off on it. It all went very smoothly. But we did need permission to use the footage and the imagery.
With the film loosely based on your grandmother and a real situation. Are there lines of dialogue or moments in the film stemming from a place of reality?
Yeah, there’s a few bits and pieces. There’s one scene, it’s towards the end, where (Thelma) is looking at the trees and they’re driving in the car. That scene is lifted word for word from a clip that plays later in the credits. That’s one example of truly word for word. Nothing else, I think, is exactly word for word. But there are a lot of expressions or exchanges that I jotted down or felt very true to our dynamic that I then tweaked for the purpose of the film.
Was June Squibb someone you immediately envisioned in the role? And off that, does it make it easier or harder to cast actors that are based on real people, especially those in your life?
In some ways it’s easier. Well, it’s easier and harder in different ways. In some ways it feels easier because you have a really intuitive sense of whether or not they share something with the essence of that character, because that character is already drawn from someone you know. So, with June, for example, I always wanted it to be her. She was always who I imagined. I couldn’t picture anybody else, and I was really grateful that she signed on when she did.
I think it was helpful for it to be based on someone (I know), because it was so clarifying in terms of who I thought had the traits of my real grandma, and then I wanted to bring that out in the character. June has always been an actor I’ve loved, and somebody who’s so good at both playing the comedy of something and the reality of something. She has grit and she has tenderness, and she can kind of shift between those really seamlessly. That’s something I’ve watched my own grandma kind of pivot between, and that just felt really essential to me. I think in some ways, having real people to base it on was kind of a grounding force.
And how do you navigate June Squibb doing the majority of her stunts?
It’s very stressful and also very impressive. As we went along we got more and more comfortable with just understanding a kind of shorthand level of her comfort, our comfort and our stunt coordinators. But, you know, watching her? That scene of her hustling down the sidewalk, and it’s our version of “the Tom Cruise running shot”, shooting that was nerve-wracking in its own right, because we have our Steadicam jogging alongside her. We practiced with her. We made sure it was all kosher and we had a railing placed about halfway if she needed it. But I think we only did, maybe, two takes of that. It wasn’t worth pushing the envelope. We want to be safe, but we want to get the shot, but we also want to be responsible. We didn’t want to injure June.
It was really kind of inspiring in a lot of ways, and also something we were just very conservative about. Our stunt team were always very much on hand and very hands on, in terms of making sure June was comfortable with what she needed to do. If something went wrong, they were always close by. We were nervous and excited by the whole process. She knew what was up. She wasn’t reckless by any means. But any chance she had to drive the scooter, she took it.
One of my favourite moments was when she’s trying to retrieve the gun and she has to stay super silent, and she does the little roll. It was so perfect. And I feel like an action movie in any form needs to be seen on the big screen, but this character is someone I feel like everyone will be able to recognise in some way. She’ll be someone’s mother. Someone’s grandmother. And to have an actress like June Squibb leading a film like this…
Oh, thank you. I’m so glad to hear that. That’s really kind of you to say, and I’m so happy it’s coming out in theatres (in Australia) too. It’s been a really fun movie to watch with a crowd. And both as a comedy and as an action movie, and in all the ways you want to look at it, it’s just been fun to see it with an audience who get invested in this journey.
And then on top of June Squibb, you have Parker Posey and Clark Gregg. Not only do you have June Squibb leading, but you secure this incredible ensemble cast.
It was really, very surreal. It was very cool to just get so many actors that I admired to do the movie. I think it had a compounding effect on some level. We had a great casting director, Jamie Ember, who came on the project early and was helpful in strategizing. We knew the movie really lives and dies on casting in a lot of ways, and (these characters) needed to feel like a family, but they also all need to serve these very specific roles. They need to be funny, but they need to be able to play it really straight, and I feel like as we got June and then Fred (Hechinger), then Richard (Roundtree) and Clark, I think it sort of signalled to the rest of the potential cast that we were going to try and really do this right.
As a first time director, I felt both intimidated and really, really excited to get such a great cast. They elevate the (movie) once it’s on its feet. It just always feels richer and more life-like, especially when you’re trying to sell that against some genre elements and the caper of it all. I think that combination just really served us well.
And even though she wasn’t a main character, I just want to shout out Nicole Byer. I loved her in this!
She’s great.
Just every little look and line delivery she gave. So great at playing the inept staff of the nursing home.
I have been a huge fan of Nicole forever. It was very fun to have her. She really did us a real solid. She came in for a couple of days, and she was so good. So, so funny, and played it so straight, too, in this really amazing way. She matched the tone of the movie beautifully. Her timing and expressions are just so good.
And then you’re taking this all on as a first time director. Was there anything that surprised you with the process? Was it as daunting a task as you expected? Or did everything go as you expected?
You know? It’s interesting in some ways. It is my first time directing a movie, but I also have spent so much of my life making things, be it short form or editing or acting or writing. I feel like I’ve worn so many of the hats surrounding that job, although some of it is still intimidating, especially when you step on the set and there’s your whole crew and cast. There’s definitely moments where you tell yourself “Just keep it together. Don’t show anyone your nerves.” But what was nice is that once we got into the process of it, on some level, there was a familiarity to it, albeit on a bigger scale that I had been used to. There’s challenges and there’s perks, and there’s all these complications. Some days are definitely harder than others. But overall it was definitely more fun than intimidating.
Thelma is screening in Australian theatres from September 5th, 2024.
