Scarlett Johansson, June Squibb and Chiwetel Ejiofor on the Human Connections in ‘Eleanor the Great’

Sandra Miska

After working 30 years as an actress, it would take a special screenplay to lure Scarlett Johansson to the other side of the camera, and she found it in “Eleanor the Great,” a moving story following Eleanor Morgenstein (June Squibb), a 94-year-old woman dealing with the very human toll of death. In an attempt to keep the memory of her recently departed best friend Bessie (Rita Zohar) alive, she relives her friend’s story as her own after wandering into a support group for Holocaust survivors. Before long, Eleanor finds herself in over her head as her fib takes on a life of its own.

Squibb, an endearing performer with a knack for comedy as well as a great talent for drama, was the natural choice to play Eleanor. Although she ostensibly relocated from Florida to New York to be closer to her family, Eleanor finds herself as lonely as ever after her daughter (Jessica Hecht) and grandson (Will Price) mostly leave her to her own devices while busy with their own lives. She ends up finding an unexpected kindred spirit in Nina (Erin Kellyman), a student journalist she meets in the support group who is interested in her story. The two bond over grief, as Nina recently lost her mother, and their Jewish backgrounds. But Eleanor can never be completely herself around her young friend as long as she keeps up the deceit, not only in front of Nina, but also in front of her father, Roger (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a famous newscaster.

Squibb and Johansson, along with Ejiofor and Kellyman, recently sat down with Entertainment Voice to discuss “Eleanor the Great.” They opened up what they learned about each other, the importance of laughter, and how making this film shaped the way they view aging.

A valuable takeaway from the film is that one is never too old to grow and evolve, and the characters certainly enrich each other’s lives. Scarlett and June, what did you learn from each other as artists?

Johansson: I think what I’ve learned, or what was reinforced, is that we’re speaking the same language. There’s generations between us, but we have a lot of shared experience between us. I think we both work in very similar ways as actors. It reinforced the importance of preparation, and arriving on set with all your ideas and some idea of what you’re gonna do. It’s my job as the director to help you to discover new avenues, and explore and play with how to feel safe to do those things. The work is the same wherever you’re at in your journey. We’re still trying to figure it out.

Squibb:  I felt I never had to push anything, because she knew where I was all the time. So it was very relaxing. I mean, it really was. 

Nina and Roger have this complex relationship, because although it is evident that they love each other, there is so much strain and awkwardness between them following the loss of their mother/wife. Chiwetel and Erin, talk about working together, creating that dynamic and working towards that scene in the third act where the walls come down.

Kellyman: Chiwetel is an extremely considerate scene partner, and I think there’s only so much acting you have to do when someone is giving what Chiwetel gives in a scene. I’m just responding to what he’s giving out. [To Ejiofor] Sorry, It feels so weird to talk about you when you’re literally right here… It felt quite natural to create that dynamic, when you’re working with an actor who is so giving.

Ejiofor: I feel the same way about Erin. And these characters are beautifully drawn. It felt very truthful, and the dynamics felt very honest. We just felt able to slip into those roles of what they were struggling with in terms of their own relationship. It felt very accessible to me, for whatever reason. I just felt like I could see what they were going through. 

Kellyman: It definitely jumped off the page

Scarlett, you cast real-life Holocaust survivors to play the members of the support group. Tell us about working with them and making them comfortable, and how they shaped what we see on screen.

Johansson: Most of the people whom we worked with for the support group had never been on a set before. For them, it was a new experience too, which is wonderful to be able to give someone a new experience in their mid to late nineties. That was cool. We spent two days doing the scenework with them. They were so patient. A lot of them had not known one another, so it was interesting to see them get to know one another. They shared their stories, their advocacy work; it was really extraordinary. It was so meaningful for everybody on the crew to have them there, and it really felt like it gave a whole other layer of importance to the scenes.

Squibb: And they were very relaxed, which I loved. You didn’t feel they were trying to be there. They were there, and they talked to me immediately as I came into the set. They were a wonderful group of people. They’ve been through so much. What did they have to lose, I guess?

Chiwetel and Erin, there’s this great ensemble scene about two-thirds of the way in which you both learn of Eleanor’s deceit, and there is this big emotional reaction. Take us inside of that scene.

Kellyman: That was an interesting scene for me, because it felt like the first time you were seeing Nina go to her dad, at that moment. She knew she had to get out of there. Everything had come to a head, and she felt like she had been [betrayed]. It was nice to see Roger step up and be like, ‘I’ve gotta get my daughter out of here.’ And Nina’s so happy to go with him. It really felt like that family dynamic from them started to come back into fruition, and the pieces that had been missing from them losing a family member had started to come back together a little bit in that moment.

Ejiofor: It’s a weird thing for Roger, because he’s a problem-solver. I think that’s a good thing and a bad thing about him, because he can be a problem-solver in life for certain situations that maybe his daughter’s going through, or his wife was going through, but he couldn’t solve the major problem of losing his wife and the grief that his daughter was going through. Being a problem-solver in your head, but not being able to be emotionally connected to people, to be a listener, is a part of his problem. He’s able to reconnect in that moment to being a bit more of a problem-solver, and then that allows him into that journey between them to start to communicate again.

Although the film deals with grief, survivor’s guilt and other weighty subjects, June also has plenty of great moments where she gets to showcase her comedic side. Scarlett and June, will you both talk about finding that perfect balance of humor and drama?

Johansson: You can have so many feelings about something at the same time. I find myself both laughing and crying all the time about all sorts of stuff… I don’t know whether it’s just being a product of both of my parents who also had a very funny, ironic sense of humor individually, independently of one another, that I also find in very difficult moments that I have to kind of laugh too. 

Squibb: The worst things, I think are funny, always. I think [Johansson does] too. If you didn’t, I think you’d go nuts… But I think we had to be careful not to be too funny. I really do.

Chiwetel and Erin, how did this film affect how you approach the passing of time? 

Kellyman:  I was already very appreciative of my family, but when you do films like this, you do think about family and making the most of everybody, and spending time with people. That’s what comes first really, isn’t it?

Ejiofor: When you’re young, you think about other people. When you’re older, you think about yourself. [Laughs] I’m getting older. The relationship to life and what you want to put into your life, is always great to be reminded of, at any age, really.

“Eleanor the Great” releases Sept. 26 in theaters nationwide.