Everyone knows summer is the domain of the action blockbuster. It’s a time for gunfights, car chases, death-defying stunts, and nefarious crimes that have to be thwarted. And while all those things have largely fallen to stars like Tom Cruise to handle, this year’s hilarious action-comedy Thelma is passing the mantle off to 94-year-old Oscar-nominated actress June Squibb.
Thelma is the first feature film from director Josh Margolin. It’s about a 92-year-old woman named Thelma who loses $10,000 to a scammer pretending to be her grandson. But instead of taking the scam lying down, she jumps on her scooter, recruits a friend, and sets off on a quest to take back her money.
In an interview with Polygon, Margolin explained that the story is based on a real incident that happened to his own grandma — though thankfully, in real life, she didn’t actually send the money to her would-be scammers. But if that premise sounds familiar, Margolin is very aware of the happy accident of his movie’s proximity to Jason Statham’s recently released The Beekeeper, which was also about a phone scammer getting a very different kind of comeuppance.
“It was so funny to see that trailer,” Margolin says with a laugh. “I was like, Oh my god, we’re a little bit like The Beekeeper. I definitely watched it because I was like, I have to see this. And it was wild and crazy and fun. […] I’m glad we can continue the grand tradition that The Beekeeper started.”
Image: Magnolia Pictures
But while Thelma might be significantly less violent than The Beekeeper, it’s even funnier and no less thrilling. For Margolin, one of the most important parts of the movie was translating the language of action filmmaking to this less-than-traditional cast, which also includes the late Richard Roundtree (Shaft) in a fantastic and fun performance. That means high-speed chases on scooters, fistfights at more manageable speeds, and high-tension heists with hearing aids.
“I’m a big fan of action movies. I always have been,” says Margolin. “The idea [was] trying to tell the story of my grandma, and this ode to her and celebrate her grit and tenacity, [using] those tropes and ideas and shrinking them down to an everyday scope and scale, but treating them with real stakes.”
Margolin says he wanted to find a way to dramatize what he calls the everyday heroism of “moving through the world as you get older and things get harder, and smaller things present more danger.”
Of course, slowed-down action scenes with older people in chases and fights could easily come off as parody — or worse, poking fun at its terrific cast of older actors. But Margolin brilliantly walks the line of laughing with our characters rather than laughing at them. They’re the stars of a true action movie here, not the butt of a joke.
“It’s so easy for anything sending up those tropes or referencing them to feel like parody, and especially stuff with older characters,” Margolin says. “Something that me and my producers were very cognizant of protecting was the tone, and trying to make sure that all of the action, all of the tension, all of the fun was always born out of a sincere and earnest care for what was happening.
Image: Magnolia Pictures
“We never wanted it to feel like it was punching down or poking fun. We wanted it to be funny in a way that felt like we’re along for the ride.”
Part of that earnestness also comes from Margolin’s own favorite action movies. He says he prefers an actioner that “treats its stakes sincerely, isn’t just winky and referential, but action that’s fun and surprising and tense and just treats things with a certain sincerity. Obviously, the Mission: Impossible movies are a big influence on [the movie]. Watching Tom Cruise hurl himself at various moving objects for our entertainment is a source of inspiration for [our] ethos.”
Thelma watches a Mission: Impossible film during the movie, and her Tom Cruise inspiration is not just there in spirit, but in the text itself. After she gets scammed, it’s seeing Cruise’s face on a magazine that inspires Thelma to take justice into her own hands. But that kind of sincerity wouldn’t work without Thelma’s terrific and committed performances, particularly from Squibb and Roundtree. Both actors are terrifically funny, and Roundtree’s charm gives the movie a tremendous amount of heart. For her part, Margolin says Squibb was adamant about owning the Tom Cruise mantle and doing as many stunts as she could herself.
“She did!” Margolin laughs. “And increasingly so as we went on, because we were pretty nervous and careful and conservative about all those things. With the help of our really awesome stunt team, as the shoot progressed and she got more comfortable with the scooter and things like getting onto the bed and rolling, we sort of developed a shorthand for what she was or wasn’t game for. It was really cool. She used to be a dancer; she was doing Pilates pretty rigorously in the lead-up to the movie. There’s a lot of physical prowess to her as a performer, and it was really cool to see her tap into that, even at this moment in her life, and use that in the movie.”
It’s rare that a summer action movie also happens to be one of the funniest and sweetest movies of the year, but Thelma manages to pull it off. So if you’re feeling the lack of Tom Cruise at movie theaters this year, just remember that Thelma and June Squibb are there, carrying the torch in his honor.
Thelma will be released in theaters on June 21.