“The Holdovers” star Da'Vine Joy Randolph unpacks her character's emotional breakdown

The "Only Murders" and "Dolemite Is My Name" actress delivers a deeply heartbreaking performance as a grieving mother in Alexander Payne's latest film.

Da'Vine Joy Randolph is perhaps best known for recent work as Det. Williams on Only Murders in the Building or starring alongside Eddie Murphy in Dolemite Is My Name as Lady Reed. Or maybe Broadway crowds will know her for her Tony-nominated performance in Ghost: The Musical.

But her latest role is one that's likely to boost her to the next level of her career, as Mary Lamb in Alexander Payne's new movie The Holdovers (in theaters now). Set in December 1970, the story centers on Paul Giamatti's Paul Hunham, a cranky teacher at Barton Academy, a New England boarding school, where he is assigned to stay with students who are unable to go home for the holiday break — the titular holdovers. Mary, who runs the cafeteria, is also staying behind to cook for the remaining few. She's also mourning the recent death of her son, a former Barton student who was serving in Vietnam because he couldn't afford college — creating an additional layer of guilt that Mary feels.

Though her grief is simmering just below the surface, Mary is stoic in many ways, going through the motions of life; she spends her quiet evenings in front of the TV, often imbibing with Hunham. But her emotions eventually catch up when she goes with Hunham and one of the students, Angus (newcomer Dominic Sessa), to a holiday party, where the gravity of her loss hits in a heartbreaking way. Through it all, you can't help but feel her pain, thanks to a very carefully crafted performance from Randolph.

The actress — who can also be seen right now in Netflix's Rustin, where she portrays Mahalia Jackson at the 1963 March on Washington — spoke with EW about the positive reception to her performance and how she's handling all of the Oscar buzz, how she tapped into Mary's situation, and more.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: I want to start by recognizing the great variety of roles you have been playing in recent years: Only Murders, The Idol, Dolemite, The Lost City, The Last OG, a handful of animated roles as well. But this one is so wonderfully different from all of those. Had you been looking for something like this? I'd love to hear about the way and the timing of it coming into your life.

DA'VINE JOY RANDOLPH: I'm always looking for it, whatever it is. I don't even know if I'm aware what it is. I like to keep a very diversified portfolio. That's probably the most important to me. I've been like that for forever, and I realize of the actors and actresses that I really admire, that's a common thread that they have — they have the ability to transform and be many different things — and I'm grateful to have the skillset in order to do that.

When this came [to me], the biggest thing that stood out was that this Black woman was able to have a fully realized character, story, and multi-dimensions, and that the director and the writer [David Hemingson] had already put in place room for me to create and allow her to blossom. And a lot of times that's not the case, and you're trying to work out ways to fit that into a script that's naturally not there. So Alexander [and I] had our meeting first, but when I got the script, it was a script that really made me be like, oh, wow, I actually have quite a bit that I can work with and work off of. And then adding Paul into the equation...chef's kiss.

We all know there are these various stages of grief and we behave and react differently through each of those as we experience them. So when we meet Mary, is it fair to say she's in the depression stage?

My goal, actually, was — because as the movie starts, [her son has] only been gone for maybe two to three months; it's quite fresh for her — so what I wanted to do was challenge myself so that through the course of the entire movie, I go through all the different stages. That was something that I wanted to create and push for, and it was a challenge. It was definitely a challenge, but it was a rewarding one for sure.

What did you innately understand about the position she was in?

That she is a woman who is a relentlessly hard worker that has to work harder than most people in order to make an honest living, that she worked her butt off so that her child could have a good education, which makes it so sad that even in how hard she worked, it still was not enough, financially, for her to be able to afford him to go to college. I think she's a strategist. She intentionally worked at that job so that her son could get an education there — a discounted education there — and it's just heartbreaking that she didn't have enough money to put him through college and that because of that had to go to war. And I understand that, given the color of our skin, what that meant for a Black man to go into that kind of situation, and that more likely than not, he was on the front lines. And that's just tragic and heartbreaking for her because I think she feels in many ways that she failed him.

And I know what it's like to work quietly... on the sidelines a bit. That's why I think this moment is so special to me because I've been doing the work for no other reason other than I believe it's not only a God-given gift, but it is something that I'm supposed to be. It's in alignment with my purpose. And so no matter whether, prior, anyone said anything about the work that I create, what I am so grateful for now in this moment is that people are responding to it. But to be honest, I feel good about the project and I feel good about what I contributed, so even if they never did, it wouldn't stop me from going because I know this is part of what I'm supposed to be doing, whether it's to help people release or heal or laugh or just get a break from their own reality, or to get in touch with their reality and to now face things and ask certain questions. Why I do [this] and why I choose the roles that I choose is for a reason. Even if it's a comedy, it's for a very specific reason.

With all of her grief, and then the added guilt she feels over her son's loss, we eventually see Mary have a bit of a breakdown at the Christmas party. It's such a pivotal scene, for so many reasons, so did all of you perhaps spend a little more time on this specific moment to make sure all of the emotional beats were just right?

No, the opposite. The actual kitchen scene was two takes, maybe three takes. Two takes. Matter of fact, after I did the first take, I think the DP walked out and was like, "I need a second," because I just let it out. And then it was very quiet when I finished, and everyone was just so supportive and respectful. They knew, the actors knew — definitely Paul knew — what that meant for me to go there. And everyone's very respectful of that. I remember [Alexander] was like, "Okay, so we have that one in the can... let's try one more." Maybe there was a third one. I don't think so. And that wasn't even intentional. It just was, this is my offering of my interpretation of what is on the page, and it seemed to resonate with everyone. So I was grateful for that, that even amongst our team of creatives, they were like, okay, that's where it is, and that's where she is. If I had to do multiple takes, I would've done that too. I think it's just how it ended up.

You've touched a bit on how much the reaction and the reception to your performance here has meant to you, but I want to elaborate on that. How is all this Oscar buzz making you feel?

Oh, it's weird. It's very weird to me. I don't really know, to be honest. I feel like a little bit of an awkward teenager. I don't really know how to handle it, to be quite honest, beyond not handling it, if I'm being completely transparent with you.

I've told my team, "I don't want to know the day they vote. I don't want to know the day that we find out. I just want to wake up in the morning and whatever happens, happens." This industry is such a beautiful one, but it's also a huge mix of luck and chance and timing and opportunity. So there's been times where I've done projects where I'm like, "Oh, for sure, this is it, this is a hit" — and nothing, or vice versa and people loving it. It's so hard and unreliable to base success on. So I don't do it for that. I do it for telling the stories of these women who probably wouldn't get an opportunity to have their stories heard otherwise. And I try to do it at a high level of quality because that's important to me, especially as a minority and as a female.

And I also do it if in any way it can help people, whether it's comedy or drama. If it can make somebody laugh or be healing in some type of way, that's the thing I'm invested in. But for there to be conversation about it, it is amazing. It's amazing. I think if nothing else, it's a little nudge or a little faint whisper to myself of like, okay, we're on to something — keep going and don't give up because it's hard; this industry is very hard. So I think if anything, it instates my desire and will to keep chugging along.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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Related content:

• The Holdovers review: Alexander Payne returns to form with a sharp, witty, and warm Christmas movie

• The Idol star Da'Vine Joy Randolph says it's 'everyone's intention' to do a second season

• Eddie Murphy elevates the shambolically charming biopic Dolemite Is My Name
  

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