Thelma Director Got Permission From Tom Cruise To Use Mission: Impossible Clips
Josh Margolin reveals they got Tom Cruise's blessing during Thelma's production.
There are plenty of movies to catch in theaters this weekend with new films like Yorgos Lanthimos' Kinds of Kindness being released while last week's Inside Out 2 is still thriving at the box office in its second week. Another movie to hit the big screens this weekend was Thelma, the action-comedy starring 94-year-old June Squibb, who can also be heard in Inside Out 2 voicing Nostalgia. Thelma was inspired by director Josh Margolin's real-life experience that saw his own grandmother get scammed out of money. The movie has been described as "a clever spin on movies like Mission: Impossible," and it turns out they actually got Tom Cruise's permission to use clips from the action franchise.
"It came during production," Margolin explained to The Hollywood Reporter when asked if they got Cruise's permission to use him in the film. "We shot two versions of those scenes, one with Tom on [TVs and newspapers] and then one with like a replaceable green box. It was surprisingly smooth. Nicky Weinstock, who's a producer on the movie, was at the same agency as him and has some pals in common there. We ended up sending the scene in the script to give him a little context and then a clip of the table read. We got his signoff and then we went to Paramount, which I suspect made things a lot easier there."
What Is Thelma About?
June Squibb in Thelma (2024).
- Magnolia Pictures)You can read the official synopsis for Thelma here: "Thelma Post is a feisty 93-year-old grandmother who gets conned by a phone scammer pretending to be her grandson (Hechinger) and sets out on a treacherous quest across Los Angeles, accompanied by an aging friend (Roundtree) and his motorized scooter, to reclaim what was taken from her. In the first leading film role of her 70-year career, Squibb portrays the strong-willed Thelma with grit and determination, demonstrating that she is more than capable of taking care of business – despite what her daughter Gail (Posey), son-in-law Alan (Gregg), or grandson Danny might believe."
Squibb performed most of her own stunts in the film, which spotlights "an elderly grandmother as an unlikely action hero," the description continues. "With infectious humor, Margolin employs the familiar tropes of the action genre in hilarious, age-appropriate ways to tackle aging with agency."
"The idea behind the movie, our director, Josh Margolin — writer, director, and editor — his real grandmother, Thelma Post, who's 103 years old, is the basis for June's character…His real grandmother was almost the victim of a phone scam similar to this, so he sort of imagined, 'If she was, what would she do?'" Hechinger told Collider. "And in his experiences, and my experiences, and I think all of our experiences, a lot of the times the most heroic and powerful people do not get depicted on film very much. And I think it's very true of Josh's real grandmother, and it's very true of June herself, that if someone messed with you in that way, you would be determined to figure out how to get your money back and how to right that wrong."
Hechinger continued, "And so, that was the other jumping-off point was, what does that actually look like? What does action, in all of its fragility, in all of its commitment, in all of its messiness actually look like on screen?"
Thelma is now playing in theaters.
