June Squibb Stars in Trailer for Scarlett Johansson Directorial Debut ‘Eleanor the Great’ ArticlePure

Scarlett Johansson’s feature directorial debut gives June Squibb an emotional leading role. 

Eleanor the Great stars Squibb, 95, as the titular Eleanor, a woman moving to New York City who strikes up an unlikely friendship with a college student. 

Directed by Johansson, 40, and written by Tory Kamen, the movie costars Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jessica Hecht, Erin Kellyman, Will Price, Greg Kaston and Rita Zohar.

Squibb, per a synopsis, plays the “witty and proudly troublesome 94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein, who after a devastating loss, tells a tale that takes on a dangerous life of its own.”

Ahead of her movie’s premiere at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, Johansson told The Hollywood Reporter in May, “I don’t know how I will be able to process the hugeness of it. It makes me nervous, but I’m excited as well.” Of the film, she added, “I’m very proud of it and proud of all the work everybody did to make it.”

Squibb, who after decades of screen work became an Oscar nominee with 2013’s Nebraska, played her first lead role in last year’s action-comedy Thelma. She also voiced Nostalgia in the animated hit Inside Out 2. 

Johansson told THR that while making Eleanor the Great and dreaming of Cannes, she told a producer, “‘If I do my job well and do what I’m supposed to do, I can imagine June walking the Croisette at age 95, starring in this incredible dramatic role that she’s so amazing in,’ and I thought that would be my dream… To have it actually become a reality is amazing.”

Between her feature directorial debut and the success of Jurassic World Rebirth, Johansson is having a stellar 2025. 

“When I read [the Eleanor the Great script], I cried, and that almost never happens,” the mother of two told Deadline in May. “Sometimes a script will move you like that, which is extraordinary.”

“Scarlett, with all of her goodwill and her power and reputation in this industry, used that capital to make this type of movie where a 95-year-old woman is ambling in the city, and it’s a character piece,” Kamen told the outlet. “It’s small and it’s not a very loud movie. That speaks volumes to the type of artist she is and the type of person she is.”

Sony Pictures Classics will release Eleanor the Great in theaters Sept. 26.