Thelma is the heartwarming story of a grandma who falls for a phone scam and vows to get revenge. It is one of the best-received films of the year, starting with its premiere at Sundance then a successful theatrical run, and now at the top of the charts on Hulu. It stars the amazing 95-year-old actress, June Squibb and is written, directed, and edited by the multi-talented Josh Margolin. Behind the camera for this film, was the very skilled DP, David Bolen, who has a history of shooting documentaries and aced this job. He recently spoke with Immersive via Zoom.
[This conversation has been edited for clarity and length.]
So how did you get involved in this? Have you worked with Josh Margolin before?
I never worked with Josh, but many years ago I did this documentary feature called Some Kind of Heaven, which is about a retiree community in Florida. Josh saw it and thought this guy knows how to shoot old people, which I think is becoming my niche. I think from his original pitch deck for Thelma, there were a bunch of images from Some Kind Of Heaven. So eventually he was looking for DP’s and it seemed like a good fit. We talked about our grandmothers, so we bonded a lot and I think we have similar sensibilities in terms of filmmaking.
Were there filmic influences on this movie?
I think the film, there’s the built-in influences of action films, and Mission: Impossible which has a direct reference in the script, so it’s impossible to ignore that. But we never wanted the film to feel like an SNL parody of an action film. We want it to be rooted.
As pre-production developed and we started figuring out where we were going to shoot a lot of the film, the locations just brought us closer and closer to the Valley, which was not anticipated at first. We didn’t think that it was going to be a Valley film. But with the Valley, I’m obsessed with Paul Thomas Anderson who I think is the ultimate filmmaker right now. Magnolia and Punch Drunk Love are two of my favorite films.
Some sections of the film were shot at the Motion Picture & Television Fund building, tell me about that experience.
It’s an amazing organization. It opened up its doors completely for us and allowed us to take over the place, which was amazing. I love it when you can shoot in real locations. I think because so many of the people living in real locations, they inform the way a place should be shot. I get inspired by talking to real people about their experiences. I think that’s why documentaries have been a big part of my life, and I love to bring that to my narrative side too. Someone should do a documentary about motion picture television fun if they haven’t.
Thelma brought to mind movies that don’t get made that much anymore, which is one of the things I liked about it on a subconscious level. Let’s talk about working with the amazing June Squibb…
June created this atmosphere on set where it completely felt like a family, and we felt so free to do whatever we wanted to do without judgment. She trusted us. I felt completely free to explore. But the thing about her too is her performances don’t seem theatrical. Looking through the viewfinder at her face, and oftentimes I’m this close to her face on a wide lens and the nuances of her performance, it was like I would get shivers.
Amazing to watch. She’s so human. What kind of challenges did you have on this project? What was it like shooting the action scenes?
It was nerve-wracking for all of us going in, because I am big on practicality, right? We don’t want to shoot stuff with a green screen or stunt doubles. We want to shoot it real. I think it was important for me that this film didn’t feel like a CGI action movie.
How did the scooter scene come together?
I’m trying to push as much of let’s do this for real, but also understand June is 94 years old. It’s like we have to be careful with what we’re doing here. I remember we did tests early on in pre-production and it jolts. I remember the producers coming and pulling me aside, and they’re like, June can never ride this.
We went into production planning that our stunt double would be doing it and finding angles where we’d be able to cheat it. But the more we shot, June just kept being like, let me try a little more. Then by the time we’re doing the scooter chase through the retirement home, June is crashing into Ben’s scooter and she’s doing it.
Excellent. Do you have any favorite setups, or favorite shots in the film?
I think two things come to mind, and both of ’em, again, are very linked to June’s face. I love the scene where June is wandering across the kind of dark field in the middle of the night and she has her fall, she can’t get up, and that was a technically challenging shoot.
We’re shooting in the middle of the night, June is on the ground lying on dirt, and we don’t have enough money or time to light the scene properly. So you’re scrounging to make it happen. And everyone’s kind of like, let’s shoot this quick so that June can get into a safe spot again. So that was an intense scene to shoot, but it’s one of the most beautiful to me and June’s performance, that scene always, makes me cry like a baby. I loved it.
What did you shoot on?
The Alexa 35. It’s a beautiful camera. What was special about it is it has these amazing low light capabilities. I wanted to kind of show the Valley and all its glory, and I think it’s such a beautiful place at night, and it allowed us to use a lot of the available light there and just bring in a couple of little units so we could pump that camera to its limit and bring out the beauty of L.A. in the nighttime.
What was it like working with Josh as the editor as well as the writer, and director?
With Josh, while we were shot listing, he was literally editing the film in his head and pre-vis a lot of things with an iPhone and pre-shoot it. For instance, the scooter sequence. We went and we pre-shot the crash and the escape from the retirement home and all that just on our iPhone. Josh edited it together. We kind of see what works, what’s feeling a bit sloppy, what do we change, and then we go on to set with a perfect plan of what we’re going to do. I think that relationship is really beautiful.
What is it like being on the other side of this now that this is out in the world and we want people to keep seeing this movie?
It’s been beautiful. I think with indie films, I’ve shot many of ’em. You’re lucky to get into a good festival and to get bought is an even bigger dream. Then for it to actually be successful theatrically, it’s very rare for that to happen.
So when you have a film like Thelma where it’s like, okay, it gets into Sundance, they buy it, it goes to theaters, people watch it. It’s so nice to just have random people reach out and say I saw it in a theater with my grandma, and we had the most magical experience. It’s awesome.
Thelma is available to stream.
