Christmas always has a special place for June Squibb. One of her first gigs as a struggling actress was as Santa Claus’ helper in a department store. You gotta start somewhere, so why not with Santa? It seemed only appropriate with that on her résumé that we kick off Christmas Day with this week’s episode of my Deadline video series, The Actor’s Side with Squibb, who has come a long way since working with ‘ol St. Nick.
At age 95, she is enjoying one of the biggest years in her career with her first-ever leading role in a motion picture, the wild grandma-revenge comedy Thelma, which has nailed her some of the best reviews in a career full of stage, screen and TV highlights including a Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for Nebraska in 2013. Thelma is just one of exactly 100 film & TV credits listed on her IMDb page, and remarkably all of those have come since her feature film debut in 1990 at the age of 61 (!) in Woody Allen’s Alice. That ought to give hope to anyone looking for second acts in this life.
Of course Squibb didn’t start acting in 1990 as she was already a veteran of many stage triumphs at that point, including her first significant Broadway role as Electra, the stripper in the original 1959 production of Stephen Sondheim’s Gypsy opposite Ethel Merman (June came in as a replacement in the role as the hit musical was running). Her credits since then include the likes of The Age of Innocence, In & Out, Meet Joe Black, About Schmidt, Far from Heaven, Scent of a Woman, The Humans and recent turns opposite Justin Timberlake in Palmer and Andy Samberg in Palm Springs. She had runs on soaps including All My Children and The Young and the Restless, and even played Sheldon’s Meemaw on The Big Bang Theory.
In Thelma, she does it all — including her own stunts on a motor scooter, among others. The film debuted to much acclaim at Sundance a year ago, and now she is nominated as Best Lead Actress for the Independent Spirit Awards, among other accolades. And it doesn’t stop there. Michael Barker, co-President of Sony Pictures Classics, tells me, SPC’s 2025 film Eleanor the Great — in which June plays the title role, her second lead ever in a movie — will put her right back in the awards race next year. That film begins the list of her second 100 IMDb credits.
On top of all this, Squibb also is the voice of the new character Nostalgia in Inside Out 2, the year’s top-grossing film worldwide, one of many voiceover roles she has done including Ralph Breaks the Internet, Toy Story 4 and Soul.
We talk about all of it, so to watch our conversation and to get the “actor’s side” of things from June Squibb, just click on the link above.
Join me every Wednesday during Oscar season for another episode of The Actor’s Side.
Happy holidays.