Da'Vine Joy Randolph Is Ready to Slay the Red Carpet This Awards Season: 'I'm Doing Mood Boards' (Exclusive)

The award-winning star of 'The Holdovers' is also a self-proclaimed "fashion girl" — and her red carpet looks are just getting started

Da’Vine Joy Randolph was born red carpet ready.

“I'm a fashion girl,” the Golden Globe nominee tells PEOPLE. “I love the details. For every red carpet I'm doing mood boards, I'm pulling hair references, nails references, makeup references, different swatches for a wardrobe.”

The 37-year-old Pennsylvania native has had plenty of opportunities to express her inner fashionista recently. For her critically acclaimed supporting performance in The Holdovers, Randolph has appeared on dozens of awards shortlists — and on carpets for every industry event in town.

At the Nov. 27 Gotham Awards, where Randolph kicked off the season with her first of many Supporting Actress honors, she wore a dramatic velvet gown in deep blue.

Related: Past Lives, Charles Melton and Lily Gladstone Win Big at 2023 Gotham Awards: See Full List of Winners

While she earned buzz for a Tony-nominated Broadway debut in 2012’s musical adaptation of the movie Ghost and her big-screen breakout opposite Eddie Murphy in 2019’s Dolemite Is My Name, the awards attention for her work as school cook Mary Lamb in The Holdovers is more “overwhelming,” she admits. 

But if anyone is prepared for that spotlight, it’s Randolph. “I'm so grateful for the opportunity and the potential love,” she says of this career moment. “And I'm super excited that if that happens, I get to wear beautiful gowns,” she adds with a laugh.

Nowhere was that philosophy more evident than at the Dec. 4 Critics Choice Association's Celebration Of Cinema & Television Honoring Black, Latino and AAPI Achievements. Randolph added to her awards mantle with another Supporting Actress prize, accepting it in a long-sleeved yellow dress covered in ruffles.

Presenting her the award was legendary Hollywood costume designer Ruth E. Carter. Randolph “had the great fortune” of collaborating with the Black Panther Oscar winner on the set of Dolemite Is My Name.

Related: Costume Designer Ruth E. Carter Shares Glimpses at Her Legendary Career in Debut Book (Exclusive)

“I love that lady so much — she’s the one,” Randolph tells PEOPLE. “I love that no matter what project I am — because I'm spoiled by her — every costume designer knows we got to talk to Ruth too.”

She continues, “I'll be like, ‘Ruth, so this is the role that I'm playing. I'm thinking this. What do you think? Can I have them call you please so we can all be on the same page?’ She's gone above and beyond even after that production to be so supportive.”

Carter’s prowess in the costuming world also means production teams have contacted her first before working with Randolph on her character’s looks. “I've done jobs where they were like, ‘We called Ruth because we wanted to come correct.’”

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For The Holdovers, “I wanted all her outfits to feel curated and thought of and well lived in,” Randolph says of the “always put-together” Mary, who “takes pride in how she looks.”

“I wanted people to think of their auntie, their grandmother, their mother,” she says of the character’s 1970s-era velvets and pastels. “Snatching me into the period helped me really lock in with her.”

Off screen, the actress uses her Instagram account to showcase her own put-together ensembles. At the Dec. 3 Academy Museum Gala at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, she made a bold fashion statement in a black evening gown with a long train, silver embellishments and accessories and a feathery metallic shawl. 

Related: Why Da’Vine Joy Randolph Says Working with Sandra Bullock and Paul Giamatti Is Like Boxing (Exclusive)

Directed by Alexander Payne and written by David Hemingson, The Holdovers follows a professor (played by Paul Giamatti) in charge of students left over during the holiday break at a fictional New England boarding school in 1970.

Randolph says she’s grateful for this career moment and ready for whatever the universe might next land her. “Every time I think I'm in control and trying to do something, it doesn't work,” she admits. “There's nothing on my résumé that I went after.”

So going forward, she says, “I’m just hands off. I'm now like, ‘Okay, let's go. Wherever you see me next.’”

The Holdovers is in theaters now and streaming on Peacock.

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