There’s something that Da’Vine Joy Randolph brings that makes us feel deeply for her. While accepting her first Oscar, tears rolled down her face as she delivered a powerful speech about being good enough as an actor.
Randolph won the best supporting actress statuette Sunday for her role as Mary Lamb in Alexander Payne’s “The Holdovers,” portraying a New England boarding school cafeteria manager dealing with grief and loss. It was clear from the start of the award season that the odds were in her favor, previously winning at other shows including the Screen Actors Guild, BAFTA, and Golden Globes.
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“I always wanted to be different. Now I realize I just need to be myself,” said Randolph. She added a heartfelt shoutout to the women who had helped her through her career, and to her publicist, and to God.
Randolph said she used other accessories in the film as a “love letter to Black women,” including wearing her grandmother’s glasses.
Beyond the glasses, the homage to women from‘The Jeffersons,’ I included all these women who left an impression on me.”
Randolph earned a Tony Award nomination in 2012 for “Ghost The Musical,” and her film roles include “Dolemite Is My Name” and “The United States vs. Billie Holiday.” On the small screen, she was in “Empire” and “Only Murders in the Building.”
For her win, Randolph beat Emily Blunt in “Oppenheimer,” Danielle Brooks from “The Color Purple,” America Ferrera in “Barbie,” and Jodie Foster from “Nyad.”
“I knew this would be a difficult role to take on. It was going to require a lot of vulnerability from me,” she said. “I knew (my grandmother) was someone in my life that would allow me to get back to my center. But it was many other women. I did a lot of research and included a few subliminal messages with hairdos, details, and accessories.
The road to winning an Oscar is long, and inside the winners’ room, here is what Da’Vine Joy Randolph, winner of Actress In a Supporting Role for the film “The Holdovers,” had to share about being in a very tough industry and keeping your mental health intac
ON WHAT IT DOES TO HER MENTAL HEALTH
“I think you’d be selling yourself short if you make it about the awards. It’s too hard of a career. The beautiful thing and the hard thing about being an actor is that it requires you to have resilience and self-confidence and belief in yourself when no one else does when you are constantly getting “nos” and you’re saying, “Nope, I’m going to keep going.” So, actually, in many ways, while it can challenge your mental health, it also can strengthen it because you have to fortify yourself in a way that some people never have to do.
So, for that, I’m grateful. I would say also, you know, you just keep yourself grounded, surrounded by people who care and love you, and stay close to what’s real. And, again, I’m just very adamant that it would not be on your heart if you weren’t meant to do it. And I know it can be challenging to wait that wait, but when it happens, it’s a full-circle moment, and you know it was worth it.
ON WINNING 57 AWARDS SO FAR. THE MOMENTS THAT HAVE STOOD OUT
I think the biggest thing is the camaraderie. I didn’t know what to expect. You know, I didn’t know if it was going to be a dog-eat-dog thing, if it would be, like, you know, really aggressive. And what’s been so beautiful is having this relationship with people who are going through the same thing with you, a support system that you can rely on, and the friends that I’ve made because of it.
ON PAYING IT FORWARD
It’s imperative because the people who’ve done it before me allowed me to be in this position now. And so the type of work I do, my strive for authenticity, for quality allows there to be a new standard set where we can tell universal stories in black and brown bodies, and it can be accepted and enjoyed amongst the masses. It’s not just black TV or black movies or black people, but instead, a universal performance that can be enjoyed by all.
HOW TO ENCOURAGE CREATIVES FROM UNDERSERVED COMMUNITIES
Due to being underserved and underserved communities, the beautiful thing that erupts is your imagination and your creativity because you don’t have much. And so you have this innate ability to create. That’s a gift, and that’s something that will serve you that when you do have the resources it’s easy. Something I think we as black people are very good at is making a lot out of very little, and I think that’s a superpower and something that we should applaud ourselves for and uplift ourselves so there’s nothing that’s never too little. It’s always just enough.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
