Aahana Swrup
The film, ‘Thelma,’ revolves around the titular character, Thelma Post, a 90-year-old woman who has a hard time letting go of her independence as her old age sets it. Consequently, she’s incredibly displeased when a phone scammer manages to swindle her off of thousands of dollars by pretending to be her beloved grandson, Daniel “Danny” Markowitz, and fabricating an emergency. Therefore, deciding to take matters into her own hands, she ventures out into the world to track down her money and get it back. In her quest, Thelma finds reluctant help from her friend, Ben, whose motor scooter ends up becoming her vessel in this action-comedy-filled-odyssey.
Meanwhile, Danny, who sports a close relationship with Thelma, frets with his parents in an attempt to locate his missing grandma. The film has loose ties to reality, connecting its protagonist with a real-life individual. For the same reason, one might be compelled to wonder if Danny’s character holds any similar real-life parallels.
Danny Markowitz’s Connection to Filmmaker Josh Margolin
The film, ‘Thelma’ retains firm connections to reality through its writer/director, Josh Margolin’s actual grandmother, Thelma Post, who serves as the primary inspiration for the tale. Although the entire story—complete with two elderly individuals’ misadventures around California—is not biographical to Post, a true story anecdote from her life led to the inception of her on-screen character and her storyline. In real life, Margolin’s grandmother once received a scam call wherein the scammer attempted to make her believe she was talking to her grandson, who had gotten in an accident.
As a result, a chaotic series of events followed, and Post contacted Margolin’s parents, who also almost bought into the scammer’s tall tales. Fortunately, the family managed to get a hold of Margolin before any money transfer could take place. Therefore, they managed to evade falling victim to the scam in real life. Nevertheless, the instance struck inspiration in the filmmaker, who began imagining a story about what would have happened if his grandmother had fallen for the scam. Thus, ‘Thelma’ came into being, drawing inspiration from Margolin’s real eponymous grandmother.
Consequently, other elements surrounding Thelma’s on-screen character also maintain a connection to reality in varying degrees. When it comes to Danny’s character, he seems to be more fiction than fact. Contextually, Danny is loosely based on Margolin himself. Even so, the filmmaker seems to have opted out of a purely biographical approach to the character, instead equipping fictitious details for the character. For instance, Margolin has been in the filmmaking industry for years now as an actor, writer, or—more recently—a director.
Comparatively, Danny remains naturally lost in his life throughout the film, undecided on a career and still working on finding the cornerstones of his life. Therefore, a natural distinction exists between Margolin and his on-screen stand-in. Actor Fred Hechinger, who portrays Danny’s character, spoke with Film Hounds about the director’s personal connection with the film and said, “I think one of the tonal kind of tightrope walks that Josh [Margolin] did in this movie is he made a movie for everybody that’s really personal to his life. By being so personal, he made it universal.” Therefore, ultimately, Danny mines instinctual inspiration from Margolin but still retains a level of fictionality.
Filmmaker Josh Margolin has Recently Been Promoting Thelma
Josh Margolin has been involved in the filmmaking scene in some capacity or another since the mid-2000s. Simultaneously, while securing short appearances in a few popular shows and movies, he also pursued screenwriting avenues, working on shorts like ‘Never Have I Ever’ or shows like ‘New Partner.’ In 2017, he and Chloe Searcy, a frequent collaborator, created the comedy show ‘My Boyfriend Is a Robot,’ which continues to sport a passionate fanbase.
Eventually, Margolin came up with the idea for ‘Thelma’ and introduced it to the writer’s group Rock & Roll Universe before drafting a script in 2019. Thus, he jump-started the project’s development process, bringing it to the world by 2024. During the time between the film’s production and release, he remained involved in other fascinating projects, such as directing a reading of ‘The Party Hop’ on YouTube, featuring talents like Ayo Edebiri, Beanie Feldstein, Kaitlyn Dever, and others. In the aftermath of the film’s release, the filmmaker has been involved in various events promoting the project. Recently, he sat down for conversations with CBS Sunday Morning and the podcast ‘The Best Show with Tom Scharpling’.
Apart from his professional life, Margolin maintains a relatively consistent social media presence, often updating fans with snippets from his personal life. He lives in Los Angeles with his partner Chloe Searcy, with whom he parents two cats, Don and Roger. He also remains close with his parents and his grandmother, Thelma Post, sharing his film’s success with them. Having celebrated numerous birthdays with his grandmother, Margolin looks forward to Post’s 104th birthday this year.
Read More: Is Thelma Post Based on a Real Person? Where is She Now?
