94-year-old June Squibb is the star of the summer! The Oscar nominee plays the titular Thelma, a grandma who gets conned while trying to help her grandson (Fred Hechinger).
Thelma, available now on VOD, is hysterical and sweet in equal measure. A movie that left me grinning in delight—a must-see, pure and simple.
Producers Zoë Worth and Chris Kaye join InSession Film to discuss championing the indie comedy from the earliest stages of production and helping director Josh Margolin deliver a confident, finely executed film debut.
Shadan Larki: First of all, thank you so much for being here.
Zoë Worth: Are you kidding? Thank you for having us.
Larki: I’m afraid this interview will just be 20 minutes of me gushing about this movie.
Chris Kaye: Terrible interview! [Laughs]. That sounds great.
Larki: I smiled from beginning to end watching Thelma. There were moments when I went, “Aww,” and then went right back to smiling again. That was my viewing experience.
Worth: That’s great to hear. We feel like we’ve watched it hundreds, if not thousands, of times, and we feel the same way.
Kaye: Yeah, it’s amazing that we can still smile and laugh at the movie.
Larki: Have you been able to watch Thelma with a crowd and get that reaction and feedback?
Worth: Oh yeah, it’s been great. The first time we experienced that was at Sundance. Then, we went around with [director] Josh Margolin to some regional festivals and got a glimpse into different age groups and cities. Now that it’s out, we find ourselves lurking around Los Angeles, watching different crowds take it in because we can’t get enough of it.
Larki: So, given that you guys have watched Thelma quite a few times [laughs], are there moments or little things that you picked up on after the fact?
Kaye: You know, I think what’s been so lovely and heartening is that the movie is a comedy. We think about it that way. But the drama and emotions seem to play well and affect people, especially the ending. When we’re lurking in the shadows at the theater and hearing people sniffling, it’s very heartening. It feels like the movie is succeeding and connecting with people.
Worth: It’s also fun to hear people applaud, especially at the end.
Larki: Given that you had Josh Margolin, a writer and director with a clear vision and inspired by his relationship with his grandma, how do you, as producers, come in, aid that, and shape it?
Worth: We certainly are creative producers. I’m a screenwriter; that’s how I met Chris. He was developing a project we’re still working on together. I’ve been involved in artistic groups with Josh for 10 or 15 years. He brought Thelma into our Thursday night writing group, where we read it aloud for the first time and fell in love with it. You said it in your question—how do you protect and amplify that vision? Chris and I focused on keeping the heart and the complicated tonal balance, not tipping too far into parody or melodrama, and ensuring the stakes were on track. Josh had the vision from the start. Chris and I did a lot of “yes and” to flesh out details and amplify character, like with Harvey or Richard Roundtree as Ben.
Kaye: This is such a deeply personal movie to Josh. It’s about his family. It’s about his real grandma, Thelma. And I think the word ‘protect’ is a really great word that Zoë just said in that, I think we are always trying to protect Josh’s vision and help him make the best version of his movie possible and to keep supporting that through every step of the production process.
Larki: Chris, this is your first credited project as a producer. What was that like? It’s one hell of a great way to kick off this chapter of your career.
Kaye: [Laughs]. Yes, we’re feeling grateful that this is the first film of this scale for either of us.
I have been working for producers for such a long time. I was an assistant to producers. I was a creative executive to producers. I’ve talked about producing intangibly for a long time, so to actually take that first step onto a set and discover that everything I’ve been talking about, I can actually put into action was so thrilling.
And I’m so happy that it got to be this movie with my friends, with Zoë, who I’ve known for years. And with Josh, who I’ve known not as long, but who’s become a really close friend of mine. I couldn’t really ask for anything better than this.
Larki: Let’s talk about the June Squibb of it all. I’m just so happy that she has this vehicle, literally and figuratively, for her star power and her ability.
When did she come into the project relative to when you guys became involved?
Worth: Around the same time, super early. That was something that Josh had put into the script, his mind, and his hopes and dreams for Thelma.
But that was being played out parallel to Chris and my involvement. His friend, Beanie Feldstein, the wonderful actress, is a longtime friend of the Margolin family and knows the real Thelma. She said when Josh told her that he was planning on making a debut that was about Grandma, she calls Thelma Grandma. And when she learned that Josh had written this, she said, ‘Well, I hope you’re planning on bringing it to June.’ And Josh said, ‘Yes, that would be my dream.’
That played out while Chris and I were getting serious about trying to make this happen. Within a couple of weeks, we learned June was in the cart with us, and we were able to make things very real from that point forward.
Larki: What I loved about Thelma is it’s a movie you don’t see anymore. There’s no CGI or big explosions. It’s about human beings and this family going through a complicated life transition. I’m so happy Thelma had a theatrical release. Can you talk about championing this movie in today’s cinematic landscape and what it means to see it come to fruition this way?
Kaye: Zoë and I talk a lot about how this is the kind of movie that we’d be attracted to as moviegoers. It’s the kind of movie we grew up watching. We talk about how there is a space in the independent landscape for these artful comedies that can be about the human experience but still be funny.
Finding a partner like Magnolia Pictures, who also believed that Thelma could be a theatrical experience because seeing it with a crowd makes you realize that this is a communal experience. It’s been such a hard couple of years that a comedy that also packs an emotional punch is a bit like an antidote to many of the more difficult things we’ve been going through.
Worth: I’d underscore the idea that there’s the whole business side. There’s also the creative side and the belief and insistence that comedies can have depth, that comedies can be artfully made, that they can translate, and that they don’t have to be dumb or the lowest common denominator.
That’s something that Chris and I believe. And Josh, I mean, he’s one of the funniest, but also the deepest writers, you know, that we know. And that’s a big headline for us, trying to put forward comedies that can mean something and be artfully made.
Larki: Do either of you have your grandmas or grandma-like figures that you can connect to the story?
Worth: I don’t have my grandparents with me anymore, but I often think about them through this. I just spoke this morning with one of my grandmother’s best friends who is so proud of this and has been sharing it with her friends and our family. It’s been kind of the next best thing. Also, one cool thing about this movie is that we shot a lot of it at the MPTF, which is the Motion Picture Television Fund. They have an amazing residential living campus out here in Woodland Hills, just outside of L.A. So, we have this amazing connection to our entertainment elders through their residence. We shot a good portion of the movie there and also did some volunteer work and fun stuff with the residents. We’ve gotten to know them, and the screening there went over really, really well. We were able to tap into our Hollywood elders in that way and get their fun comments and questions and watch them take the ride.
Larki: That’s amazing! Thank you for sharing that.
Kaye: I didn’t really grow up with my grandparents. So, in a way, the process of making this movie has allowed me to live vicariously through everybody else’s grandparents. The MPTF was such a sweet way to start building a connection with a generation that I’ve never had much experience with, honestly.
Larki: Thelma has so many great running gags and recurring bits of comedy. Do you have any favorites? Mine would have to be Thelma’s insistence that she knows random people.
Worth: That’s a good one! There are a lot. I love the ‘I think I know her.’ I love the use of the hearing aids.
Kaye: Starey Gary (David Giuliani)!
Worth: You might not recognize me, but I actually played the theater director of Annie at the end of the movie! Josh is so good at payoffs. I commend his ability to have payoffs for as many runners as there are in a movie that isn’t chock-full of ridiculousness.
Kaye: Also, musically, Nick Chuba’s score, I would say that the flute is one of my favorite runners, what it does for the character of Thelma, and just how playful it can be.
Larki: I thought the score and sound work was really interesting, too, because it mirrors the feedback you would get in your hearing aid. I thought that was cool. You mentioned that you guys would be working together more in the future. Can you tell me a little bit about what might be cooking?
Worth: I would say that this team is actively working on multiple projects together, particularly in the comedy space. Some are in a similar scope as Thelma, and some are a little bit bigger.
Kaye: We went into it as friends and came out of it as even closer friends. We have a great relationship with Thelma’s financiers. So, we’re figuring a few things out.
Larki: Zoë as you mentioned the tonal balance, Thelma does have so many different things and pulls them off so brilliantly. Can you guys talk a little bit about that and what it was like? Were you guys able to be on set a lot?
Worth: Oh yeah! Thank you. That was the main thing here. If you look at everything kind of in its parts, the story’s really clear, the characters are clear, the emotional depth is resonant, but how can you weave one ride fluidly between the stakes, the action genre, the comedy, and make it all feel of a piece?
Josh talks a lot about getting performances and shooting it in a very straight way, often shooting the action from Thelma’s point of view. That’s a score thing as well. Nick scored the action from Thelma’s point of view. Thelma’s never the butt of a joke. We’re in it with her, and it’s like Tom Cruise’s long-running shot, but it’s her walking to the post office. It’s all very much coming from her POV.
June talks about authenticity all the time, being real. But part of that is also owning the laughs, leaning into what’s funny or ridiculous or silly and owning that side of it, too. It was really this calibration thing—never losing the fun, but not tipping into a place where you lose the authenticity of the characters and their journey.
David Bolen, the DP, Nick Chuba, the composer, and all of our department heads were working with Josh in a way that made the movie feel lived in. And then the things that happen that are a bit ridiculous can still feel like life. I think that was a really important tonal tightrope walk.
Kaye: I think that’s a great point. Every department did buy into this tone and how to sell it. Having that level of buy-in from top to bottom made our jobs easier. We could always point everyone towards that tone we talked about, and they could always be like, ‘Right, I can’t go too far this way or too far that way. It was so helpful to have that buy-in.
Larki: I think it’s really hard to make a good movie because if it were easier, there’d be more of them. And I just think this is a really, really good movie. I can’t wait to watch it again.
Worth: Right! Thelma is a really fun movie for an intergenerational conversation. We’ve heard a lot of feedback from audiences that someone can be 20 or 80 and really get a lot out of the movie, even if those are slightly different things. Sometimes they’re the same thing. That’s been a beautiful, cool, unique thing about this movie. I would say, see it with someone you love. And it’s the Summer of Squibb!
