VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: Fred Hechinger & Clark Gregg On Working With June Squibb & Richard Roundtree in ‘Thelma’

In an exclusive uInterview, Fred Hechinger and Clark Gregg discuss working with June Squibb and the late Richard Roundtree in their new film, Thelma.

Thelma follows an aging widow of the same name who spends most of her time tending to her 20-something grandson, Daniel, played by Hechinger. When she receives a call from a scammer pretending to be Daniel, Thelma sends $10,000 in cash to a nearby P.O. box and embarks on an action-packed journey to retrieve her money.

Hechinger said that working with Squibb on the project was “incredible.”

“She’s the best, just the top of the top, not only one of the greatest partners in scene work but also just a great friend,” he told uInterview founder Erik Meers.

“We just came from a screening where we could tell that the audience was really connected with the film,” Gregg said. “I think the reason that’s happening is, certainly to an extent, the relationship between the magnificent Fred and June. But really there is just an unsentimental, openhearted, kind of beautiful courage to June’s performance that sets the tone. It keeps it funny and moving all the way through.”

Hechinger said that his favorite scenes with Squibb happen toward the end of the film.

“They meant a lot to me to film. They were sort of rudder scenes, whenever I was confused I felt like I could go back to the two scenes and re-read them,” he explained. “Not only did they bring me joy and excitement, but they also felt like they had a kind of core heart of the entire move within them. When we eventually filmed them, it was even more special than you could have predicted.”

For Gregg, who lost his father shortly after wrapping production on the film, the caring dynamics between the characters in certain scenes hit close to home.

“He had a stroke, and there was this vulnerability and a way where this very powerful figure in my family and my life suddenly needed support and was clinging to his own strength and power as it was under assault,” Gregg said. “I found the dynamic in a couple of the scenes where ‘How do we take care of this person?’ ‘How did she fall for this?’ I don’t know, it was very moving to watch it again after having gone through that experience.”

When asked how he thinks audiences will respond to the movie, Hechinger said that he hopes they find aspects of their relationships in the characters.

“I think loving someone is a messy process, and I hope that this movie can feel gloriously messy in the way that life is to me,” he said. “That’s one of the things that I really responded to when I read Josh’s script; to love someone is to trust them, but also to worry about them, but also to get on each other’s nerves sometimes but still want to be with them. There’s a very real love that he’s crafted that is in every frame of this move and in every frame of June’s performance, and I hope people see and feel that.”

Similarly, Gregg credited the writing and said that there is something “very true” about the way the family in the film interacts.

“Josh is very gifted, we all realized we’d had the same experience when we read the script, we couldn’t put it down. It’s not because it’s flashy, it’s maybe the slowest-moving action movie you’ll ever see, but it’s deeply human,” Gregg said. “When my daughter was born I remember thinking ‘Oh my god, my heart is just going to be walking around the universe, completely at risk from now on.’ I think that there’s an element of that that also takes place when people are at risk or vulnerable or aging when you’re worried about them and want to respect their dignity.”

Thelma, which premiered at the Sundance 2024 film festival, also featured the late Roundtree in his last role. Hechinger felt honored to have worked with such an industry legend.

“He was an incredible person and we miss him,” Hechinger said. “Seeing the movie, it will always be a small thing in the larger loss and feeling, but it’s still something to spend a little more time with him again and be able to think about grief and loss with him. Through his performance, it felt like a helping hand in missing him.”