It’s been said that age is just a number, and if there was ever a person to exemplify that, it’s June Squibb.
The veteran actress — who received a 2014 Oscar nomination in the Best Supporting Actor category for her role in “Nebraska” — celebrated her 96th birthday in November 2025.
Slowing no signs of slowing down, Squibb has just been cast in an upcoming movie.
What’s Next for June Squibb
GettyDeadline is reporting that Squibb has signed on to star in “Turn the Lights Back On,” an indie film from writer-director Dave Pantano.
Described as being in the vein of such films as “August: Osage County” and “Little Miss Sunshine,” the upcoming dramedy will see Squibb co-starring with Alex Borstein. Borstein, of course, is coming off some massive critical acclaim for her role in “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.”
Based on a True Story
“Turn the Lights Back On” is said to be based on true events, dramatizing what many families faced during the pandemic.
Per Deadline, the film “centers on a family forced to confront decades of unresolved tensions while facing an unprecedented moment in modern history.”
Borstein plays Emma, described as “an exhausted elementary school teacher grappling with perimenopause, family responsibility, and the impossible decision to place her aging mother into assisted living just as the world begins to shut down.”
Squibb has been cast as the mother of Borstein’s character, Mary, “a woman clinging to any feelings of control in her life that she can as she ages, her faculties decline, and her dementia worsens.”
A Tony Nomination at 96
Earlier this year, Squibb made history when received a nomination for a Tony Award. The nomination was in recognition for her performance in the Broadway production of “Marjorie Prime.”
That nomination pushed her into the record books as the oldest person to ever receive a Tony nomination.
“I’m thrilled with what this nomination will do for my career,” Squibb quipped in a statement to People.
She also took to Instagram to share her excitement. “Basking in this Tony Award Nomination full circle moment,” she wrote in the caption.
A Late Bloomer
Squibb got he start on Broadway, including a role as an exotic dancer opposite Broadway legend Ethel Merman in “Gypsy.”
However, it wasn’t until she was in her 60s that she was cast in her first film role, in the Woody Allen-directed “Alice.”
Futher roles followed, small parts in big films. These included Martin Scorsese‘s “The Age of Innocence,” the Al Pacino-starring “Scent of a Woman,” and acting opposite Jack Nicholson in “About Schmidt.”
In an interview with The Guardian, Squibb was asked if she was ever nervous going head-to-head with such iconic Hollywood figures.
“No, it was always just work,” she said. “I had the script. I learned it and I was ready to go … I always feel my role is the leading role, no matter what it is. I have that ego that whatever I’m doing is the important thing in this film.”
