“It’s never too late.”
That’s a motto 93-year-old actress Marla Gibbs lives by, and it’s also the title of her song featured in Kimmie P. Callaway‘s short film “Mildred 4 a Million.” Gibbs plays Mildred, a woman who sets out to get a million TikTok followers in a desperate attempt to connect with her great-grandaughter. Gibbs and Callaway sat down for a webchat with Gold Derby to discuss the film, which is eligible for Best Live Action Short at the 2025 Oscars. Watch the video interview above.
Callaway’s inspiration for the film was her own grandmother. “There is a real Mildred,” she states. “She gets dolled up to go to the grocery store, she irons napkins, and she pulls out the fine china when we come to visit. Me visiting her with my three and five-year-old, who are just terrors in her house. There’s a tech tornado going on while she just wants to sit down and enjoy a meal.”
The filmmaker says she simply Googled “actresses in their 90s” when casting for the project and Gibbs’ name popped up. “When Marla came up I was like, ‘I love her!’ I adored her all through childhood watching her on ‘The Jeffersons’ and ‘227.’ I saw an article that she was out there, wanting to work, full of life. I got so excited because she’s classy like the real Mildred, she’s funny, and just had so many things in common with my grandma.”
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Gibbs read the script and “thought it was great.” She reveals, “I have a great-granddaughter, and of course, I can’t get her attention. She’s got all these friends and she’s so busy. You can’t get their attention! So, it rang true to me.”
While discussing her zest for life and continued passion for acting, Gibbs says, “We’re spiritual beings as well as physical. As spiritual beings, we don’t have an age and we don’t have a time. So I choose to vibrate on 30, which means I work as long as I want to.”
Although the actress considers herself “dumb” when it comes to social media, she’s racked up over 300,000 followers on Instagram. “I don’t pay any attention to social media,” she admits. “My grandson put me on Instagram. My grandson does all my social media.”
Callaway raised money to make the film through grassroots fundraising. “Once Marla came on, it just blessed the whole project,” she explains. “There was this new enthusiasm. So many of us are big fans of hers. We were so excited to meet her, work with her, learn from her. We got to shoot at her neighborhood Von’s for free because everyone loves her there. That scene that would have cost maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars to take over a grocery store all day…we got the hook up!”
Gibbs also reminisces about her decades-long career which includes five Emmy nominations for “The Jeffersons.” She’s quick to remember she lost all five. Now she hopes “Mildred 4 a Million” can get her back on some red carpets, including the Oscars. “That would be phenomenal,” she says. “It would prove my theme, it’s never too late.”
