This might be the biggest year for Black actors at the Oscars ever since the Academy finally woke up to the need to push for greater representation. Among a host of African-American talent nominated in several important categories this year, Da’Vine Joy Randolph stands tall — shimmering and sashaying — as the most sought-after contender for Best Supporting Actress.
The 37-year-old Philadelphia native is in the limelight for her career-defining performance in Alexander Payne’s melancholic yet life-affirming drama “The Holdovers.” She plays Mary Lamb, a mother mourning her son’s killing in the Vietnam War. She is the head cook at Barton, a tony all-boys boarding school in New England. It is 1970 and she finds herself spending the fortnight-long Christmas holidays with two unlikely companions, each susurrating at the margins, struggling at life. One is Paul Hunham (a terrific Paul Giamatti), an uptight, wry teacher of ancient civilizations. The other is Angus Tully (the impressive debutant Dominic Sessa), an unruly, unwanted pupil.
Though the film, written by David Hemingson, focuses mainly on Hunham and Tully as they find themselves through each other, Mary is its warm, beating heart. Without her effortlessly adding a dash of gravitas and perspective, the morose duo would have been a little too lemony. Each part of this unique trifecta, in its own singular way, is battling grief and hiding from the world with nowhere else to go.
Randolph was nominated for a Tony for her turn in the Broadway production of “Ghost” (2012), but it was “Dolemite Is My Name” (2019), in which she starred opposite Eddie Murphy, that put her on the map. Next came the action rom-com “The Lost City” (2022), in which she co-starred with Sandra Bullock, and then “Only Murders in the Building” (2021-present), which has her alongside bigwigs such as Selena Gomez and Meryl Streep.
She has been working on big-billed projects, but Mary is inarguably the meatiest role offered to Randolph thus far. She agrees. “It was a fully realized character with her own wants and needs and a true arc. As a woman of color, I don’t get that too often, and I don’t take that for granted,” she told People, adding that Mary has set a new bar for her.
Watch out for the scene in the film in which she talks to Paul about how both her son Curtis and his father were good men who couldn’t make it to even 25. Or when she unpacks a box full of Curtis’ belongings from when he was an infant and holds on to his baby shoes. Or when she finally unravels under all the grief and lets it loose at a colleague’s Christmas party.
Each scene is laden with the inexplicable sadness of a marginalized, working-class, single parent who’d sacrificed all her life to raise her son properly and proudly. Only to see him be used as cannon fodder. There’s also immense guilt. A former Barton student, Curtis enrolls in the Army because Mary couldn’t afford to send him to college. In a heartbreaking scene, she says he’d have been alive if she’d had more money.
It’s been a joy to see Randolph — a curvy Black woman — win all the major awards this season, shining and beaming. She has already won the Critics Choice Award and the Golden Globe for “The Holdovers.”
“I want women to feel seen, heard, and understood. It’s like a form of activism. I’m literally in the trenches fighting for this woman and her rights, every single detail,” she said in a recent interview with Vanity Fair, adding, “I hope the luxury of getting these awards will result in that I can fight a little less hard.”
Though Randolph is by far the most popular candidate, the other nominees in the Best Supporting Actress category at the 96th Academy Awards include Emily Blunt for “Oppenheimer,” Danielle Brooks for “The Color Purple,” America Ferrera for “Barbie,” and Jodie Foster for “Nyad.”
As for “The Holdovers,” it has bagged an impressive five nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Film Editing.
The Academy Awards, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel (for the fourth time), will be held at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California, on Sunday, March 10, at 7 p.m. ET.
