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‘Eleanor the Great’ cast on working with June Squibb, director Scarlett Johansson

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June Squibb as Eleanor, Erin Kellyman as Nina, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Roger in ‘Eleanor the Great.’ (Jojo Whilden/Sony Pictures Classics)

June Squibb takes center stage in the new film Eleanor the Great.

The movie, which is Scarlett Johansson‘s directorial debut, follows a 94-year-old whose fib told during a time of immense grief takes on a dangerous life of its own.

Chiwetel Ejiofor and Erin Kellyman co-star in the film, and they say it was wonderful to watch Squibb act every day on set.

“She was so brilliant to work with. It was really a lesson every day,” Kellyman said.

Ejiofor said while “everybody knows that she’s a terrific actress,” Squibb’s performance in Eleanor the Great “is really something special.”

“The range of emotions that she can take the audience on, from, you will be laughing with her — hysterically laughing, side splitting — and then you’re really emotional, and you’re with her at the next moment. It’s really incredible.”

While you’d be hard-pressed to find someone unfamiliar with Johansson as an actress, the Eleanor the Great cast has the distinct understanding of who she is as a director.

Ejiofor says Johansson was a great communicator and very charismatic on set.

“Those two things in combination just means that she’s able to really get people on board and is able to communicate her vision,” Ejiofor said, adding that Johansson’s vision was “quite complicated in its themes and some of the tonalities and some of the shifts in it. And she was really very specific about what she wanted from each moment and the kind of experience that she wanted the film to be.”

Ejiofor said it was helpful to be directed by someone who is also an actor themselves.

“You can’t slip anything past her because she sees it, but she can also really direct the action,” Ejiofor said. “It’s a rare skill.”

Eleanor the Great is now available to watch in theaters.