June Squibb boards Covid-era family dramedy with Alex Borstein
The Nebraska Oscar nominee will play Borstein’s mother in Dave Pantano’s indie feature debut, Deadline reported.
By Georgia Hale · Staff Writer
2 min read
June Squibb is joining Alex Borstein in Turn the Lights Back On, an indie family dramedy from writer-director Dave Pantano, Deadline reported.
The film gives Squibb the role of Mary, mother to Borstein’s Emma. According to Deadline, Mary is aging, losing some of her faculties and dealing with worsening dementia while trying to keep a grip on whatever control she still has.
Borstein, an Emmy winner, stars as Emma, an elementary school teacher under strain from several directions at once. Deadline reported that the character is dealing with perimenopause, family obligations and the decision of whether to move her mother into assisted living as the world begins to shut down.
Turn the Lights Back On is based on true events, the report said, and draws on situations families faced during the Covid era. The story follows a family forced to deal with long-simmering problems during a moment of crisis.
A family story in lockdown pressure
Pantano is making his feature directing debut with the project, which he also wrote. Deadline said the film is being positioned in the vein of family-centered ensemble titles including Little Miss Sunshine, August: Osage County and The Brothers McMullen.
The producing team includes Dino Maglaris, Harrison Chiu and Addie Scott Irwin of Salado Pictures, along with Borstein and Marni Rosenzweig of The Rosenzweig Group, according to Deadline.
The casting puts Squibb opposite a performer best known to many viewers for her Emmy-winning television work, while giving Borstein a central dramatic role in a story built around caregiving, aging and household strain during the pandemic shutdown period.
Squibb stays busy
Squibb earned an Academy Award nomination for Alexander Payne’s Nebraska. Deadline also noted her recent indie work in Scarlett Johansson’s Eleanor the Great and Josh Margolin’s Thelma.
Her upcoming slate also includes the fourth and final season of Showtime’s Yellowjackets, Deadline reported. The outlet said Squibb is represented by BRS/Gage.
The new casting follows Deadline’s earlier report that Borstein would star in Turn the Lights Back On. With Squibb now added as Mary, the film’s central mother-daughter conflict is coming into focus: a teacher overwhelmed by her own life, and a parent resisting the losses that come with age and illness.
This story draws on original reporting from Deadline.