JUNE SQUIBB, 94, is driving me around the parking lot of her Sherman Oaks apartment complex on a red three-wheeled, two-person mobility scooter, her white hair fluttering in the late-May breeze. The complex, where the actor has lived for 20 years, is a kitschy, 1950s-style Hawaii-meets-Old Hollywood fever dream, crumbling a bit around the edges but mostly uncannily preserved, as if at any moment Bing Crosby might emerge from behind a palm tree and offer you a midday stinger.
Squibb, in a green L.L.Bean cargo jacket over a colorful striped top, is cheerful and calm as she pilots the gigantic craft at ten mph, pointing out the surrounding attractions: the rock-pile "volcano" that spurts bright-blue water ("The Blue Lagoon!"); one of the five pools where she swims to keep fit whenever she can; the recording studio, where she once did a podcast "just talking about me, basically."
A cartoonishly handsome stunt coordinator named Ryan Sturz runs next to us at a healthy clip, making sure Squibb doesn’t fall off. Squibb met Sturz on the set of Thelma, a warm and moving comedy about a Jewish grandma who gets phone-scammed out of $10,000 and, much to the anxiety of her close-knit family (played by Parker Posey, Clark Gregg, and Fred Hechinger, all operating at their peak), sneaks off on a renegade quest across Los Angeles to retrieve her money and her dignity. It was a huge hit at Sundance earlier this year, inciting a bidding war ultimately won by Magnolia, and is in theaters now. It’s the first time Squibb—who has worked consistently in theater, TV, and film since the early 1950s and earned her only Oscar nomination, for a supporting part in 2013’s Nebraska, at the age of 84—has ever been cast in a lead role.
Esta historia es de la edición July 1-14, 2024 de New York magazine.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición July 1-14, 2024 de New York magazine.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
LIFE AS A MILLENNIAL STAGE MOM
A journey into the CUTTHROAT and ADORABLE world of professional CHILD ACTORS.
THE NEXT DRUG EPIDEMIC IS BLUE RASPBERRY FLAVORED
When the Amor brothers started selling tanks of flavored nitrous oxide at their chain of head shops, they didn't realize their brand would become synonymous with the country's burgeoning addiction to gas.
Two Texans in Williamsburg
David Nuss and Sarah Martin-Nuss tried to decorate their house on their own— until they realized they needed help: Like, how do we not just go to Pottery Barn?”
ADRIEN BRODY FOUND THE PART
The Brutalist is the best, most personal work he's done since The Pianist.
Art, Basil
Manuela is a farm-to-table gallery for hungry collectors.
'Sometimes a Single Word Is Enough to Open a Door'
How George C. Wolfein collaboration with Audra McDonald-subtly, indelibly reimagined musical theater's most domineering stage mother.
Rolling the Dice on Bird Flu
Denial, resilience, déjà vu.
The Most Dangerous Game
Fifty years on, Dungeons & Dragons has only grown more popular. But it continues to be misunderstood.
88 MINUTES WITH...Andy Kim
The new senator from New Jersey has vowed to shake up the political Establishment, a difficult task in Trump's Washington.
Apex Stomps In
The $44.6 million mega-Stegosaurus goes on view (for a while) at the American Museum of Natural History.