June Squibb Is Always the Leading Lady
June Squibb became a leading lady at 94 when she starred in the 2024 scammer-vengeance comedy Thelma. The job required stuntwork involving a mobile scooter and a gun, and Squibb insisted on performing everything herself. That sort of can-do ethos has guided her long career. Following smaller detours in Inside Out 2, American Horror Stories, and the Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead remake, she’s now appearing in her second eponymous lead role in Eleanor the Great, opening September 26. She plays a spiky retiree who befriends a lonely college student after claiming to be a Holocaust survivor. The movie is Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut, and its writer, Tory Kamen, created the character with Squibb in mind. “I always think, no matter what I’m doing, that it’s the leading role,” Squibb says.
Eleanor the Great arrives 12 years after the barbed comedy Nebraska made her one of the oldest nominees in Oscars history. Squibb stole the film from Bruce Dern and Will Forte, playing a foulmouthed chatterbox who flashes gravestones and will denigrate anyone in or out of earshot. She also endeared herself to audiences as Hollywood’s crotchetiest granny, but in conversation Squibb is nothing like that. A longtime New Yorker now living in Los Angeles, she is warm and optimistic with a life that anyone half her age would envy. Here, how she gets it done.
On her morning routine:
I hate getting up before nine. When I first get out of bed, I have to feed cats. I used to have two, and one became very ill, so I have one now, but he demands that I get up and feed him. I have a beautiful patio with big doors, so I open everything up if it’s nice weather. I get the New York Times and the L.A. Times every morning. I have breakfast then: decaf coffee, juice, granola, yogurt, or sometimes just toast with butter and jelly. I like to have my bed pulled together. I grew up in a very small house, so I was forced from a young age not to screw the house up.
On what she’s reading right now:
I read Scandinavian mysteries — almost anyone I can get my hands on, like Jo Nesbø and Henning Mankell. The Scandinavians have a wonderful reality, these dark days and no sun, that sort of permeates the novels. I’ve always enjoyed East Indian writers — and Naguib Mahfouz, who was Egyptian. I love French work, too. I was talking to someone who wanted to write something for me, and I said, “How about I’m an assassin?” I think that’d be a hoot. The least likely assassin you’d ever find in your life.
On winding down at the end of the day:
My assistant’s usually here until about four or five on a day when we’re not doing something and then I start winding down. I finish the newspaper, and I feed the cat again. Someone cooks for me three nights a week. I either read or do sudoku. There are certain things I like on TV. I love the FBI shows on CBS. The original one is the best. I like music, too. I saw Kelly Clarkson’s new show, Songs & Stories. It’s wonderful. She had the Jonas Brothers on. I think they’re very good. I enjoy watching the way the three of them work. And they’re very cute.
On how she manages stress:
I think very little about it, to be honest with you. If something happens that’s stressful, I make a quick decision and handle it. It’s as simple as that.
On how she treats herself:
Mocha, decaf, with whipped cream. And those Werther’s caramel candies.
On having a personal assistant:
I have a wonderful personal assistant, Kelly Sweeney, and she’s been with me for about ten years now. My son demanded that I get an assistant when I was in my 80s and still doing everything by myself. If I didn’t have her, I wouldn’t be working. I think it would be too hard. If someone wants me to work, then they’re going to get Kelly along with me.
On getting her first lead roles in her 90s:
It’s a surprise. I never thought ahead that far in terms of what I would be doing or what would be there for me. It’s amazing. I think people are interested now in aging. Our whole population is aging. I came along at the right time for that, because to find two scripts with 90-year-old roles — people weren’t writing that before.
On her breakthrough audition:
My first Broadway production was Gypsy. I was asked to audition for La Plume de Ma Tante, and it was for the young woman who worked on pointe, Yvonne. My agent told the stage manager, “Oh, sure, June can work on pointe.” I’d never been in a pair of pointe shoes in my life! I went to the audition, and somebody I knew was checking everybody in, and he said, “You can’t do pointe.” I said, “Yes, I can.” He said, “Where are your pointe shoes?” I said, “I forgot them,” and he went downstairs and came up with an old pair of pointe shoes. He was going to make me get into them. When they called me to sing, somebody walked down the aisle and said he was the stage manager from Gypsy. They were looking for a replacement, and he thought I might work for it. So he said, “Go downstairs. I want you to do strip movement. We’ll play the piano, and you’ll just move to it.” I didn’t know what strip movement was. A friend of mine was downstairs, and she said, “Just dip a lot and do your bumps.” I just dipped like hell, and I got the job.
On when she knew she “made it” professionally:
It took a long time. I had to show people that I was not just a musical-comedy performer, because in New York at that time, if you did musicals, they did not want to see you as an actress; you were in your niche. Baltimore Center Stage hired me for a French Canadian play, and I thought, My God, I’ve done it. From then on, in regional theater I was always working as an actress. I started doing Off–Off Broadway stuff in New York, so more and more people saw me. In the ’70s, there was a big influx of film and TV in New York City. I went to my agent, and I said, “A lot of my friends are doing these roles.” A week later, I had an audition for Woody Allen, and I got the housekeeper in Alice. And the same casting people brought me up for Scent of a Woman and Scorsese’s The Age of Innocence. All at once, people said, “You’re a film actress now.”
On whether she’s ambitious:
I think it’s a quiet ambition. A lot of people would say, “No, she’s not,” but I think I am. Yes, I know I am.
On what her first Oscar nomination made her hungry to do:
To get it again. I don’t even think in terms of winning an Oscar. To me, the nomination is what’s important. I never thought in terms of leading roles. It just never occurred to me.
On terrible advice she has received:
When I was younger, I think people tried to put me in a box. I remember being told, “June, you’re too pretty to be funny.” That was when Carol Burnett was big, and a lot of other people, and I just thought that was dumb. I was able to pretty much tell everyone to leave me alone.
On New York versus Los Angeles:
There’s something about both of them that I love. California is kind of wonderful, and it has been good to me. I love Gavin Newsom, and I’m very proud that he’s my governor. I moved out here because as I got older, New York got harder physically. I didn’t feel I could do the buses much longer, because that’s how I traveled. It’s easier out here to live, but I love New York and I loved being young there.