Big Screen Spotlight | Thelma star Fred Hechinger tells us about his new comedy, dinners with June Squibb, and playing a fictional version of his director

(Image credit: Universal)

Thelma introduces a new kind of action hero in 93-year-old Thelma Post, a pensioner on a mission of revenge. Played by Inside Out star June Squibb in her first leading role, her story begins as she’s tricked by scammers into sending $10,000 to supposedly help bail her grandson Danny out of jail.

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However, the exchange leaves her not only out of pocket but also facing the loss of her independence, as her family worries that her mental state may be in decline. Not done with life yet, Thelma decides instead to reclaim what she lost by venturing onto the streets of Los Angeles on a stolen mobility scooter.

It’s an action caper as much as it’s a buddy comedy between Thelma and her grandson, played by The White Lotus star Fred Hechinger, who tells us that the key to the movie was straddling the genre lines.

“If it ever falls into one genre, we’re done, it’s too late,” the actor says to GamesRadar+ about their mantra for making the movie. “I think at all times, the movie should be holding all of those truths together: it should be an action movie, a drama, a comedy in the same way that in life, you don’t know what genre you’re in.”

Partners in crime

(Image credit: Universal)

The central dynamic in the movie is between Squibb and Hechinger, who are connected as much through blood as the shared feeling of losing their autonomy. For Thelma, that’s the prospect of being put in sheltered housing, and for Danny it’s forging a path for himself amidst constant babying from his parents (played by Parker Posey and Clark Gregg).

“I think the relationship in the movie is fundamentally this best friendship, which happens to be a grandson and grandma, but even that familial connection is a lucky coincidence of family,” Hechinger observes.

This dynamic between the two bled into real-life as well. “We’re friends now, real friends and that happened pretty quickly,” he tells us with a smile over Zoom. “She invited me over to her place a few weeks before we started filming, we were gonna look through the script and talk about it, and then we ended up chatting about our lives”. It’s something that’s continued beyond the movie too, with the pair visiting each other whenever they’re in the same city.

The connections to real life don’t end there, either. The movie is based on writer and director Josh Margolin’s own experiences with his grandmother. The real Thelma Post, who is now almost 104, was duped too by scammers a few years ago. However, unlike his on-screen counterpart, he answered the phone before any money exchanged hands.

“Josh was so generous with the details of his life, but he was also not precious about them, either, which was a terrific blend,” Hechinger says of the responsibility of playing a version of his director. “It meant that any parts of his personal story that inspired and served this story were able to be a part of it and anything that didn’t, you could leave at the wayside.”

This was helped too by early filming taking place in the real Thelma’s condo, where the director had spent a lot of time hanging out with her. “We were living in the space that this really happened in, and I would pick up these old books, and I would see newspaper clippings from Josh’s real grandfather and notes from the real Thelma,” Hechinger recalls.

“It was just this incredible experience because you were surrounded by the physical details of their life, and also the spiritual, psychic space where so many experiences happened.”

Cruise control

(Image credit: Universal)

Beyond the emotional heart of the film, it all comes back to the action in Thelma, and in particular, one man: Tom Cruise. He was both an inspiration both for the character’s courageous mission to get her money back, and for the cast too. “Josh has this thing where he says watching his grandmother do a bed roll is as terrifying as watching Tom Cruise jump out of an airplane in Mission: Impossible,” Hechinger says. “Which I think is true. I think our lives are action movies, all of the thrills and fears and tensions that you feel when you watch something on a big IMAX screen is true to our experiences as well.”

Squibb did the majority of her big moments in the movie, including one moment where she crashes a mobility scooter, which actually wasn’t the original plan. “Once she got on that scooter, so thrilled, her face just lit up, she was just zipping around, so happy,” Hechinger laughs. “I would say with every day, increasingly, she did more and more of her own stunts. By the end of the production, she really had become this stunt woman on the job, and I think her appetite for them got larger and larger.”

Unfortunately, the footage approval from Cruise didn’t come through immediately, which meant they had to use some creativity in an early scene. In one version, Danny and Thelma are watching Cruise do a stunt in Mission: Impossible 6, but they had to get a few back-up versions that didn’t mention the action star. “I had to do these alternates that are basically like, ‘Wow, look at this guy on the TV,'” laughs Hechinger.

Thankfully, the consent did come, and it was a big moment on the set. “Josh came in and told us that it had reached Cruise and he approved and everyone cheered like it was Christmas morning or something. [We were] so excited because we had secured the rights to that footage.”

It’s not yet clear if Cruise has seen the final homage, but Hechinger says hopefully “they’re parachuting it right now” to him. Either way, one thing is certain: in Thelma Post, a new action star has entered the hall of fame. Move aside, Ethan Hunt.

Thelma is in UK cinemas now. For more on what to watch, check out the rest of our Big Screen Spotlight series.