Philly native Da’Vine Joy Randolph wins her first Oscar as best supporting actress
The 37-year-old Temple graduate capped off a fantastic award season for her performance as Mary Lamb in 'The Holdovers.'
Da’Vine Joy Randolph won the Academy Award for best supporting actress Sunday night for her portrayal of Mary Lamb in The Holdovers.
“God is so good,” Randolph said, wiping away tears in a stunning Louis Vuitton powder blue halter gown and a colossal feathered shrug as she launched into her acceptance speech for her first Academy Award.
Randolph’s win caps off a spectacular award season during which the 37-year-old Philly native and Temple graduate picked up best supporting actress awards at this year’s Golden Globes, SAG, Critics Choice, and BAFTA. Randolph, who studied opera at Temple University’s Boyer College of Music, also played Mahalia Jackson in last year’s Rustin, starring another Philly native, best actor Oscar nominee Colman Domingo.
Randolph, who played Margie in the TV series, The Good Wife, beat out America Ferrera (Barbie), Jodie Foster (Nyad), Danielle Brooks (The Color Purple), and Emily Blunt (Oppenheimer).
“I didn’t think I was supposed to be doing this as a career,” Randolph said in the acceptance speech. “I started off as a singer and my mother said to me, ‘Go across the street to that theater department, there is something for you there.’ I thank my mother for doing that.”
Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers, which critics hailed as the new holiday classic, was nominated for five Academy Awards including best picture, best director, and best film editing. But Randolph was the only winner.
In The Holdovers, Randolph stars alongside best actor nominee Paul Giamatti and Cherry Hill-born Dominic Sessa, and plays the manager of a dining hall in a private New England all-boys residential school. Mary, who is grieving the loss of her son in the Vietnam War and doesn’t want to leave the campus, spends the Christmas holidays with the other holdovers.
Giamatti, who was seen crying at Randolph’s speech, plays Paul, a history teacher disliked by everyone including Angus, a troubled teen deserted by his family, played by Sessa.
“It was her heart. I think it was [about] connecting to this woman that embodies so many different women that I grew up with. We have all these really nice holiday stories, and that’s cool. But what is the movie for people having a different experience during the holidays?, Randolph told The Inquirer last December when asked why she chose to say yes to the role. “I just love the fullness of her personality, and this idea that broken people are able to come together to fill a void, and in the process somehow become more whole.”
From the moment Mary pours Paul a tea cup full of whiskey, we understand she’s as acerbic as she is empathetic. Mary understands pain and extends kindness. Randolph’s performance allows for depth, still not common for large Black women in Hollywood.
“When we meet Mary in the cafeteria in The Holdovers we can feel [her grief] simmering under the surface,” said Lupita Nyong’o as she introduced Randolph as a nominee. “Your performance is a tribute to those who helped others heal their pain in spite of their own. It’s also a tribute to your grandmother, whose glasses you wore in the film. What an honor to see the world through her eyes and yours...”
Mary’s stylishly long flip and polyester belted suits is reminiscent of Mabel “Mama” Thomas, the matriarch of the 1970s sitcom, What’s Happening!! portrayed by the late Mabel King. King exited the series after just two seasons because producers wanted to dumb down her character. Like Mabel, Mary sits squarely in her agency, speaking her mind in a deliciously authentic Roxbury, Mass., accent, as she helps the wounded characters feel whole while refusing to forsake her own healing.
“For so long I’ve always wanted to be different and now I’ve realized I just needed to be myself,” Randolph said in her speech. Then she tearfully thanked Ron Van Lieu, her theater professor at Yale. “I thank you for seeing me … When I was the only Black girl in that class, you saw me and told me I was enough and when I told you I didn’t see myself, you said, ‘That’s fine you are going to forge your own path. You are going to lay a trail for yourself.’”
And that she did.