How a personal prop helped Da’Vine Joy Randolph craft her career-changing performance in 'The Holdovers'

There is something typically down-to-earth about the way Da’Vine Joy Randolph remembers the call from Alexander Payne, a two-time Oscar winner for screenplay which led to her being cast in The Holdovers. While others might gush about the career-changing moment, Randolph starts with an admission.

“I’m bad with faces and names. So, I knew of his work, but I didn’t correlate that this was the guy,” she says. “I just got a call and we were chit-­chatting, and then he was like, ‘I think you’d be great for this part, why don’t you read the script?’

“I read the script,” written by David Hemingson, “and fell in love with the script. I thought it was so beautifully written, very thorough, it was all there, it was good stock. That was the week of Thanksgiving. Then we had another chat after the holiday, and he said, ‘Great, it’s yours. We start after Christmas.’”

Payne’s astute casting sees the Philadelphia native play Mary Lamb, the head cook of a private school in New England, who remains on campus over Christmas 1970. She is accompanied by a grouchy classics professor (Paul Giamatti) and the troubled pupil (Dominic Sessa) he has to babysit over the holiday. Mary is dealing with the recent death of her son in Vietnam, yet acts gamely as a buffer between the combative teacher and pupil.

The comedy drama was released by Focus Features in North America in October, grossing $26.6m worldwide at press time — and since release, Randolph has been racking up awards for best supporting actress, including a Golden Globe win and nominations from Bafta and the US Academy.

While societal issues bubble under the surface of the film, its focus is on the trio’s personal problems — not least Mary’s grief over the loss of her only son.

“We discussed this idea of showing all the stages of grief from start to finish,” she says, of her conversations with Payne. “In my research, what I found interesting was that it doesn’t always happen in the convenient order listed. You can jump between different places, or go back a step, you could be in acceptance and then have bouts of anger, you can have a great laugh and immediately dive back into despair.” How to delineate all of that, she adds, was “for me to decide, scene to scene”.

Physical support

An actress who enjoys using props, Randolph turned to one in particular for this role: spectacles that belonged to her late grandmother. “I need something to ground me,” she explains. “Listen, this is about grief and loss. My grandmother is no longer with me. And there were several things about Mary that remind me of her — this sense of being able, despite one’s pain, to be there for others, to be able to get the job done and do it well, while people have no idea what you’re dealing with.

“That applies to many women in my family, but in particular my grandmother,” Randolph continues. “She passed when I was 14 or 15. She had bad arthritis, but growing up I had no awareness of just how much physical pain she was in. She made time for us, and was super loving.”

Randolph’s mother gave her the spectacles in question, and the film’s props department found a close equivalent for the shoot. “It was the exact shape, and they were able to put on this little delicate chain. And it was helpful to me, oh my gosh, yes.”

The production shot entirely on location in Massachusetts, between January and March 2022. “We were 100% in the trenches,” says Randolph. “But we enjoyed it, it bonded us in such a deep way. It was like Survivor, very cold, probably as cold as it gets in Boston. That was a beautiful part, because we were shooting in natural light, in the cold. It felt very real.”

In terms of age and experience, Randolph sat between the veteran Giamatti and Sessa, who was a senior student in one of the schools used as a location in the film, making his professional acting debut.

“Look, it can be extremely overwhelming. He’s very intelligent and very much an old soul,” says the actress. “But we felt this responsibility — I think Paul would agree — of wanting him to have a great first time and to feel comfortable asking questions and all that kind of stuff.”

As Sessa was applying to colleges at the time, with drama in mind, Randolph took an active interest. “I found myself dedicated to encouraging Dominic to get an education in acting, if this is what he wanted. At that time the school acceptances were coming in. So, every day, I’d be like, ‘Who do we hear from this week?’ And we would talk about it. Because I wasn’t too far removed from that, myself.”

In fact, it was in London — where Randolph is meeting Screen Inter­national — that the actress made her breakthrough. In 2011, fresh out of the School of Drama at Yale University, she was cast as the medium Oda Mae Brown in the intended Broadway transfer, from the West End, of Ghost: The Musical. As events transpired, she jumped into the role early after Sharon D Clarke suffered a knee injury during the London run, and the newcomer was flown across the Atlantic to fill her shoes.

“It changed my life, because I was thrown into it, which has been the tone and the rhythm throughout my career,” recalls Randolph. But she had rehearsed in New York, right? “Nooo. This is why this is so crazy. I said, ‘Well, why don’t you have the understudies do it?’ And they said, ‘Oh, well this could be your rehearsal.’ I got here on a Sunday, jetlagged. End of rehearsal on Monday they were like, ‘Great, we’re gonna put you in on Thursday.’ That Thursday was my dress rehearsal — a live production. And then Friday I was off to the races.”

Randolph was nominated for a Tony when Ghost did eventually transfer to Broadway. Soon she was working in both film and tele­vision, notably opposite Eddie Murphy in Dolemite Is My Name, and as the hard-nosed New York cop with a penchant for Gilbert and Sullivan in Hulu’s Only Murders In The Building.

She says of that series’ leading male co-stars, Steve Martin and Martin Short: “It’s so fascinating how these legends, at their age, have more vitality, stamina and youthfulness than anybody on that set combined. They’re constantly searching for ways to improve their craft. They have no egos and it’s deeply moving. And it encourages me. If you’re ever so lucky to be working this long, that’s how you do it. It’s the loveliest set ever.”

Another season is in the works. Meanwhile, Randolph has added a new string to her bow. “I did my first proper action movie. It’s called Shadow Force, with Kerry Washington and Omar Sy. I’m doing all the action — guns, hand-to-hand combat — and I’m so excited.”

So she’s going to become an action star? “Hey, fingers crossed.”

• ‘The Holdovers’ director Alexander Payne on a joyous reunion with Paul Giamatti and planning a western next