Thelma | Deadline Studio at Sundance - video Dailymotion

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00:00 [MUSIC]

00:10 So my grandma got scammed in a very similar way to the character in the movie.

00:20 Someone called pretending to be me, saying I needed to be bailed out of jail.

00:23 And basically chaos spread throughout my family until luckily in real life,

00:28 we were able to intervene before she actually sent the money.

00:31 But that incident definitely got my wheels turning and

00:35 I think it was just very surprising to see her tricked in that way.

00:38 Cuz she's just been one of the sturdiest figures in my life and

00:43 just sort of always the sharpest, even well into her 90s was just,

00:47 has always been sort of sharp as a tack.

00:48 So I think it threw me for a loop, but it got my wheels turning and

00:52 I started imagining what might have happened if she had actually sent it.

00:56 And I'm pretty sure she would have basically gone out there and

00:58 done everything within her power to get it back and not told us about it.

01:01 So that was sort of the original genesis.

01:04 And I've also just always loved action movies.

01:07 I've just had an affinity for them and

01:09 something about giving it that treatment sort of felt right.

01:12 To sort of shrink those tropes down to the scope and

01:15 scale of what it would mean for somebody to get across town and get this thing back.

01:19 It just sort of somehow in my head those two things made sense together and

01:22 I sort of ran with that.

01:23 Yeah, I loved the script when I read it and I liked the character a lot and

01:28 I wanted to do it right away.

01:30 I felt it was something I should do.

01:32 I think her strength and as I'm nearing that age myself,

01:37 I am the age of Thelma in the film.

01:40 And it was just how great to show a strong woman doing this.

01:47 And I've always kind of been a feminist and I've always done a lot of things that

01:52 they've said women should not do or girls should not do.

01:56 So it talked to me.

01:59 >> The script and knowing that June was gonna do it and

02:03 also Josh, as he said, he based the story off of

02:09 his real grandma Thelma who's 103 now.

02:13 >> She wished she could be here but couldn't make the trip.

02:16 >> But he made these documentary shorts with her as well.

02:21 Before he wrote the script that are beautiful.

02:24 And so all of that together, I mean, I just, that experience where I started

02:27 reading it and then didn't stop reading it until it was the last page.

02:31 And I just really, you wanna make things that are fully human,

02:40 where there's no person that's being sold out,

02:44 that all of our struggles are coexisting and exploding all together.

02:50 And also I love my grandma a lot and I have yet,

02:55 until I read this, seen the strength that June's

03:00 talking about depicted on the big screen.

03:05 I grew up watching movies with her and she loves movies, but

03:09 I wanted to make something that I could watch with her too.

03:12 So it just was like we were talking about, it was a no brainer.

03:17 It was impossible to not do it once the opportunity was there.

03:24 >> I mean, by the time I was sent the script, I saw who was involved.

03:28 And it was kind of a wish list of actors for me,

03:31 including Fred who I had just seen in White Lotus.

03:34 And then I read the script and it felt completely unique and rare to me.

03:40 And completely open hearted and at the same time not sentimental.

03:45 And I just wanted to be part of this family.

03:48 >> All the scooter riding was really fun.

03:52 And the flipping and flopping all over the beds and the stairs, everything.

03:57 I just love doing it.

03:58 And I said I wanna do what I could and he let me.

04:01 >> She did more and more as we went on.

04:03 >> Yeah. >> It would become,

04:04 we were very careful at the beginning of the shoot and by the end of it,

04:08 June was like gunning that scooter and stopping on a dime.

04:12 What was your nickname you gave yourself, I believe?

04:14 >> Stop on a dime squib.

04:15 >> Stop on a dime squib, yeah.

04:18 >> We're gone with that.

04:18 >> Well, it was wonderful to do the film with him.

04:23 And when Josh said he was doing it, it was sort of exciting.

04:28 I mean, I remembered him as Shaft, of course, and

04:31 knew that he was working and doing a lot of work.

04:34 And he was a wonderful guy.

04:37 He was such a doll and he was such a strong guy.

04:42 And it was such fun to have him on the back of the scooter.

04:46 And he did wonderful things on my birthday.

04:49 He wasn't on set, he wasn't working, but

04:52 he came in and brought me two dozen roses for my birthday.

04:56 And they also had white wigs and he put one on.

05:03 We even have a picture of that.

05:05 It is pretty funny.

05:06 So he was willing to be one of the gang.

05:09 He really was, he was great.

05:11 >> Yeah, I'm sad that it is and also honored that we got to work with him.

05:17 To echo June, he was really the loveliest guy, really warm, wonderful, funny human.

05:22 I think anytime he was on set, people just felt good being around him.

05:27 And I feel just incredibly lucky to have gotten the chance to work with him and

05:31 to have gotten the chance to get to know him at that moment in his life and

05:34 that moment in my life.

05:36 Also, anytime I gave him a note, he would look at me for a very,

05:40 very long time and be silent.

05:42 And then he would just look back and say, watch this.

05:45 And then he would go and do a take, which was just always got me, but yeah.

05:49 She saw a very early cut and liked it but couldn't hear it.

05:54 And then she saw the final version maybe a few months ago.

05:58 And I think it sort of registered for her that it was an ode to her.

06:03 And she was very moved by it and very weirded out by the fact that June says

06:07 that she's Thelma Post, because that is my grandma's name.

06:11 So that was one part that sort of haunted her.

06:14 But other than that, she loves it, which was very sweet.

06:18 She and I did do a read through of a lot of the script at one point,

06:21 which was actually really fun and strange.

06:23 But she knew I was working on it.

06:25 I think she was sort of excited about it and also a little weirded out by it, but

06:30 happy it was happening.

06:32 I think she just couldn't fathom that somebody was like, she felt like,

06:35 I was like, of course, it's about you.

06:37 You're this incredibly important person in my life, this huge figure in my life.

06:42 But I think for her, it took her a minute to get comfortable with the idea that

06:45 someone was writing a movie about her, even if it's her own grandson.

06:50 I hope people will take away, not to count people out,

06:55 not to count out people who you might assume aren't as capable as they may be.

07:00 And also, I think that sometimes, even if you need,

07:05 you can hold on to your autonomy and still accept help,

07:08 which I think is sometimes a hard balance to strike at any age, honestly.

07:11 Just the feeling of how capable am I, how dependent on others am I.

07:16 I think every character in the movie is kind of going through that in a different

07:19 moment in life.

07:20 So I hope there's something to be gleaned in searching for that balance.

07:26 >> I think that to love someone,

07:31 it's a process and it requires trust.

07:35 And also, you have to really see somebody to do it.

07:41 And that's not an immediate, that isn't always an immediate thing, or

07:45 it moves in a way.

07:45 And I feel that Thelma really sees Daniel in a way,

07:51 because she really spends time with him and spending time with people is love.

07:58 It's like, that's the way that we can express love.

08:01 >> There's an acronym that love, I'm gonna go right off that segue.

08:07 Love stands for let others voluntarily evolve.

08:11 And I feel like as the helicopter parent who kind of can't trust that things

08:16 are gonna work out for his son and that he's gonna figure it out.

08:20 I felt that very present.

08:21 I love the parallel storylines of two people trying to figure out how to feel

08:26 useful and independent.

08:28 But I also in watching, there's such a great thing about the festival and

08:32 that you come here and you see it in front of a film loving audience.

08:36 Who come in like really hoping to love it.

08:39 And there was a way where we felt the audience connect to this.

08:43 And you see it in a different way when that happens.

08:45 And for me, what another special layer to this movie was,

08:49 I feel like and it may be particularly American or

08:53 there's a particular version of it in this country where we don't see a lot of

08:57 stories about older people.

08:59 It's kind of like we're a little obsessed with people who are young and

09:03 influencing or whatever they're doing.

09:05 And I think we deprive ourselves of a lot of wisdom and

09:10 a lot cuz we're all going there.

09:11 And I think there's a form of like, we don't wanna see it cuz we don't wanna

09:14 think that that might happen to us at some point.

09:17 Which is really depriving us of some deep wisdom,

09:19 both from them and for ourselves.

09:22 But I also think there's a wonderful meta element to it in that

09:26 in this film you see someone who you would consider very much a senior,

09:32 kicking ass, taking names, superheroing, and

09:36 kind of proving the point in the film.

09:39 >> It's called Eleanor Invisible, and it is a wonderful script again.

09:46 And it's about a woman who says she was in the Holocaust and was not.

09:50 But it gives you all the reasons or the reason why she does this.

09:55 And it's kind of a buddy film.

09:56 She goes very close to a young woman who's a journalist herself.

10:02 [MUSIC]

Thelma | Deadline Studio at Sundance

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