March 5, 2024 • 38 mins
In her junior year at Temple University, Da’Vine Joy Randolph was essentially forced out of the school’s opera program. Unsure of what to do, she decided to join the school’s musical theater track—and immediately, Randolph turned heads. Her ability to bring something wholly her own to a wide variety of characters eventually impressed the Yale School of Drama, from which she eventually graduated. There, Randolph honed the warmth and presence that shines through in her role as Mary Lamb, the cafeteria manager and head cook in The Holdovers, for which she has been nominated for an Academy Award. On this week’s episode of Table for Two, the Philadelphia-born actress sits down with host Bruce Bozzi to discuss the development of her interest in the dramatic arts, the philosophies that guide her acting style, and the singular experience of working alongside Alexander Payne and Paul Giamatti. Listen and subscribe to Table for Two with Bruce Bozzi on the iHeartRadio App or wherever you listen to podcasts.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, everyone, and thanks so much for joining me today.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
It's a very special, exciting day because this episode kicks
off the second season of Table for Two. We're thrilled
to be getting back into the swing of things at
my favorite joint in Hollywood, the Tower Bar.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Oh my god, Hi, Hi sweet Hi.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
You might notice that the room is buzzing a bit
more than usual, and I think it's because everyone knows
we're having lunch with today's guest. She's a brilliant actress
who has acted on Broadway, television and in many incredible films.
Her latest movie, The Holdovers, has earned her a Golden
Globe Award, a Critics Choice, a BAFTA, and a Screen
(00:43):
Actors Guild Award.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
To top it off, she's.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Speaker 4 (00:48):
If I could get a saucer, water and Arnold Palmer,
that'd be perfect.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
That's right. Today we're having lunch with the one and
only enjoy Randolph.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
So pull up a chair, grab a glass of rose,
and join us for the first episode of season two.
I'm Bruce Bossi and this is my podcast, Table for two.
(01:22):
You know what's really amazing about you is And I
had no idea your parents took a job.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
You grew up in Hershey and they were house parents,
is there.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Which is interesting.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
So I grew up in Philadelphia and then in eighth grade,
my parents got a When I was in Philadelphia, I
went to prep schools. My mother in particular, because my
mother is an educator, they made sacrifices so that I
could go to private schools and prep schools my entire education.
(01:55):
But I was a what do they call it a
day so I would get bused from the inner city
and go to these like beautiful suburbs and have this
whole other life and come back. I remember coming back
and the first time I had sushi.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
At school and just being like, well, what is this?
I love it?
Speaker 4 (02:16):
And I remember my parents sat me down and they said,
you have to promise us, if you're going to have
these opportunities, that when you come back home, you introduce
us to it, you introduce your friends to it, so
that this world is not just your own. Bring back
what you learn and share, right. They their parents were
(02:37):
adamant about We're going to still live in the inner city,
but we're going to go have that experience and then
you bring back what you've learned and you bring that
back into your community. And that's something that I'm still
aimed to do right and try very hard to do.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
So that was up.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
Until eighth grade, and then we moved to Hershie because
there's a very big boarding school there. The difference with
that boarding school is that at the time we're there,
it could have changed. I'm not sure, but the mission
was that it was it first turned off that Milton Hershey,
the man who made the chocolate bar, his wife couldn't
(03:16):
have kids, and so they created an orphanage and it
was a boy's only orphanage. Then it was boys and girls,
and then that orphanage then turned into a school.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
So where I think, and I don't know how all
schools are ran of these kind of like boarding.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
Schools, but this is a boarding school. At that time,
there was a bit more for at risk youth, so
less of like affluent families dropping their kids off. It
was more of at risk youth giving them an opportunity.
Some how, I had opportunity to.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
Go to these places. And so my.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
Parents were house parents are like dorm parents, and so
we had this big house and we had like ten
to twelve kids.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
That is kind of crazy.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
Yeah, so I know, not only going to school in
these environments and then living in this environment all throughout
high school. So yeah, I definitely think that had an
influence on it, and how my parents had to be
parents to all of us, especially because it's you know
(04:19):
what I mean, So some people don't have parents in
their life. For some people are raised by their grandparents
or you know what I mean, whatever their situation is.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
And so it's always remember how.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
When some kids got left for the holidays or you know,
parents couldn't take them or whatever for whatever reason, how
my parents would try to make it a little extra
special or you know, I've experienced holdovers before my mom
as a teacher, so that never stopped.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
And their house parents, so it's not like a dorm
person in a college sense, where like they only step
in when there's a problem.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
They're in middle school, high school, they're very hands on.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
The develop Yeah, exactly, big response.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
They were parents to all of them. Yeah, and I
had to share my parents with them. Wow.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
I mean, you go to Temple, you get a Bachelor
of Arts, You go to Yale, you get an MFA.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Like that's like a big deal, did you? Like you know,
I know that you.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Pursued a career as an opera singer and a singer,
and like, which is something you know?
Speaker 1 (05:38):
I just no idea.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
And then you sort of pivot when you realize, oh,
the acting bug, the acting that's in you you want
to pursue.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
No, no, that's actually not how it happened.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
So I've always loved music, but growing up I had
a lot of interests. So my parents were kind of like,
we're cool with what. I was always told, We're cool
whatever you want to do, but whatever you do, get
the best education in Canada and be very good at it, right.
And so education and competitiveness is in my blood, right,
(06:09):
It's just it is what it is.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
And so when growing up, when people.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
Were like, oh I want to be a this a
that I jingled for very like, very very late, I
did not know really what I wanted to be. No
high school, I didn't even know. I didn't know what
my career path was going to be. And I remember
in high school there was a girl who came from
Canada a new student, and she was talking about this
performing art school that she went to and I just
(06:38):
was like, this sounds amazing of what she's speaking of.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
So I blindly auditioned for it.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
I got there and it was all classically based, like
they had jazz.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
It mused instrumental, but not like a jazz vocal.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
And I grew up a more like jazz and R
and B and soul and that kind of thing right
with Philadelphia, and like the Philly was sound yeah, and
so that was like a shock to me. I was
just digging around because I was like, I don't know
what this is, so I was like faking it. And
so then we auditioned for an opera and I ended
(07:13):
up getting one of the leads and I was like,
this doesn't even make sense. Wow, So this is a
pipe yeah, it's I knew I had singing, but.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Question mark right.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
And so this was in Traverse City. This is like
two three hours away from Detroit.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
But where this.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
Magical beautiful place is. It's like on a lake and
all these pine trees. So there's like but we're like
in cabins, right, So we're roughing out in cabins and
I got sick due to like the mold and stuff.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
So I ended up completely losing my voice.
Speaker 4 (07:48):
Okay, So I'm out of performing our school with no
voice as one of the leads. But I will never
forget that experience because I feel like it was a
very spiritual, soulful experience in which, in that moment I
was a junior in high school, I was understanding what
(08:09):
it meant to be an artist and to begin to
think of process. And I never had thought of stuff
like that before because I couldn't speak, so my inner
voice was the loudest voice.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
I could hear.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
And everyone around me is having a good time and
expressing themselves creatively and I can't. So it's like I
had to rely on other senses, and I was so
internal that it allowed me to begin to I think
that truly was the place of me birthing.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Myself as an artist.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
And so.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
Magically I get my voice back the day of the show.
It's weird, It's really it doesn't make sense. My parents
were there. I'm like, why are you coming? I don't
even have a voice. My voice comes back.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
It magical, So they not replaced you like somebody.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
Understudy one of the sweetest women girls in the world,
and literally the teacher because they made me come to
all the rehearsals.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
I was like, this is brutal. Why are you doing
this to me?
Speaker 4 (09:09):
They made me come to rehearsals and I never get
the teachers like just lightly part your lips and breathe
as everyone's singing around you. Because and this happened when
I went to a Barbara Streiss concert and I said
in like the tenth row, and I did it again,
like as an adult, our vocal chords vibrate the sound
we're hearing. So that's like, have you ever gone to
(09:31):
like a rock concert or like where someone's like screaming
and when you go home you either literally have a
sore throat or you're like you just feel like right,
it's because our vocal cords are vibrating to match that.
When I went to the Badge concert, I was in
beautiful voice. I was like, oh, she has beautiful forbes
(09:52):
because my vocal chorus feel yummy, right and so extinctively,
I guess my body the anatomy I was rehearsing though
I was not phonating, and so I was able.
Speaker 5 (10:05):
To do and it was healing. It was healing, yeah,
and to wait, so now it's getting very close to
the night that you're gonna have this performance. Do you
all of a sudden started saying.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Why did you? Was the day of the morning they say.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
The teacher was like, we're going to do vocal warm up,
and I was like, why, I'm not performing tonight. And
we started doing vocal warm up and it was like
the first time that I was starting to phone it.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
This is a crazy story. And I literally am like.
Speaker 4 (10:37):
Oh my god, I'm going up the register and I'm
going higher and higher and I never get I asked
the girl.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
She was in the room with me.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
I could not believe this understudy was in the room
and I was looking at her and I'm crying and
I'm like, I'm so sorry because I'm.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Going and she was so sweet.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
I was like, just let I said, let me go
on tonight because my family is here.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
You can do the rest of the shows. Just give me.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Yeah, no, she's been doing it the whole time. I'm
not gonna sit. But I was like, just give me
this one. It was opening up, but just give me
this one. Parents are here. We could do the rest, right.
So at this one, I'm now like schools are coming.
All the stuff Julliarden. You know Manhattan's College, you know the
School of Music. Everyone's there.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
So I was like, okay, I guess I'm an opera singer.
Went to Temple for the teacher. Opera to me was
like what Shakespeare is to some people, right, you gotta
imagine I'm from inner city Philadelphia.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
I wanted you know how when you sometimes can watch
Shakespeare and it's literally like a foreign like you don't
know what that person is.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
It takes a while to get the ears you even
understand that.
Speaker 4 (11:45):
My teacher says, that's when they're doing it for themselves,
when you're doing it for the service of the work.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Because think about it, it's just.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
Old English, yes, And when people were watching Shakespeare it
was in the bottom it was actually like very broad
comedy and drama that even uneducated people could understand and right,
but when we sometimes put this high falutin thing on it,
(12:17):
same thing for opera.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
The only difference is quite literally in another language.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
So I was like, I want to make sure my
reasoning for wanting coaching, and guess what we're gonna call
it was so that my family when they came could
understand and other inner city people who came where tip
was the city school could understand what was happening, which
to me they connected.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Brings me back to when your parents said, no matter
what you learn, you write, that's right party exactly.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
Somehow they thought I was in the mix as someone
that was now trying to leave the music department to
go to the theater department.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
Was not the case.
Speaker 4 (13:00):
I just wanted to make it make sense for the
viewer because I was very much so sold at this
point on being an opera singer. But my teacher told me,
I can go travel the world, eat pasta, eat really
good food, men are gon a dote with me. I
can wear gowns, furs, lots of money. I was like,
this is me, this is me?
Speaker 3 (13:18):
Are you kidding? This is me?
Speaker 4 (13:20):
And so I was very much into this. I was this,
are you going to tell me no griping with what?
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Please me?
Speaker 4 (13:32):
So they got upset and they essentially flunked me up.
Really m junior year in conservatories it is really like
your senior year. It's like your big all culminating, almost
like your senior thesis.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
That happens in your junior year.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
You do an aria and every language with every like
the romance linguage.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
So I don't know Germans on the romance things, but.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
German English, Uh, Spanish, Allian, French. And then you may
do like one other English or like another for free
you can throw in there.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Yeah, but it's like six seven pieces they flung to me.
No way had a full ride.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Yeah, welcome back to Table for two. Today we're having
(14:36):
lunch with Dave and Joy Randolph and talking about her
path to acting. Before the break, she was telling us
about leaving the music program at Temple University unexpectedly, So
how did she make the pivot to the stage?
Speaker 3 (14:50):
So why what's happening? Right?
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (14:52):
It was if it was like the store is closed, right,
like the great is coming down or up rather for me?
And I was like, and it was this thing of
this inner monologue of this isn't about you.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
Don't let this penetrate you.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
This isn't your story, right, so don't even attach yourself
to it. Right, So this is happening and they're saying this,
and there's just like there was a disassociation.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
I think a healthy one.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
And I called my mother and I'm I'm blistened. This
is my junior year.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
You're like senior year is.
Speaker 4 (15:29):
Just about what opera house or what symphony am I
gonna be connected to?
Speaker 3 (15:34):
That's all.
Speaker 4 (15:34):
The senior year is putting you at what what house
are you going to be at?
Speaker 3 (15:40):
And so my mom, cool as.
Speaker 4 (15:43):
A cucumber, said, I'm gonna give you the weekend to,
you know, feel everything you're feeling, and then on Monday,
you're gonna go across the street and you're going to
apply and see if your credits can transfer over into
the theater department. I will never forget I was on
(16:03):
the street. I had a tantrum in the middle. I'm
not an actor.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
I don't want to losing it. My mom was like,
do you trust me?
Speaker 4 (16:16):
I'm telling you see if the credits can transfer.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
She said. I looked online.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
It seems like most of your credits can transfer. You're
gonna still graduate on time. Go across the street and
apply to the acting department. I came there dragging my
you know, our little kid just drags their backpack as
a and I'm.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
Literally like, here's my actor. She's like, there are you short?
Speaker 4 (16:46):
Like no ants come here later like a four year old,
like well, you can't even literally like I'm gonna let
it and she was like okay. Well, and so I
was there for a year and I'm so grateful because
they saw something in me. And I was only there
(17:09):
for a couple of months before December approached that next
year and I had to apply. Well, if you wanted to,
that would be the time that you applied for graduate school.
And remember we came back from Christmas break and the
Dan asked me to come into his office and he
had four applications on his desk. He said, I just
(17:31):
need you to sign right here. I said, what is this?
And he was like, you're applying for graduate school?
Speaker 3 (17:36):
Now? Mind you.
Speaker 4 (17:36):
I'm literally in just survival mode of like diploma, nothing
else done. And I was like, no, sir. He goes, well,
what else are you going to do when you graduate?
I was like, well, I don't know, but I love
to say. He goes, well, that's you always will have that.
But you have a gift here, and I just want
you to explore it. You gotta taste. I mean, moms, nothing,
(18:00):
I knew nothing of it. But then I'm looking at
these and I'm like, yale n yu.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
What like the top one's top ones? I don't even
know what acting is really yet.
Speaker 4 (18:11):
And Yale was my first one and.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
I just went just one interviewed, did an audience.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
Yes, and all these kids are crying and throwing up
in the corner, and I'm like, what is this?
Speaker 3 (18:26):
This is why I don't like these actors. They're weird and
too you know what I mean, Like.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
Musicians are a lot, but Jesus, you're actually like a
tenors too much. And I had one of my first
interviews and it was Ron van Lutz, who's a god.
(18:53):
I don't know who this man is. And he's like,
do you know where you're at? And I was like,
oh my god, did I come to the wrong school?
Because they were like, pa, you know.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
I was like, I came to the wrong school. He cause, no, no, no, no,
You're at the right place. But do you know where
you're at? I said.
Speaker 4 (19:07):
They told me it was the Yell School dramaser and
he was like, go downstairs and just walk the hallway
and come back. So I walked downstairs to their cabaret
and on the walls it's pictures of students from the
past as students. So I'm seeing Meryl Street in the boat,
(19:33):
I'm seeing Paul Giamatti with a clown nose on Leev Schreibern.
I'm seeing Angela Bassett with Lauren Fishburn and in August
Wilson productive like, what is this place?
Speaker 3 (19:52):
Yea, and I come back upstairs and I was like, okay, cool,
you know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (19:59):
He I was like, I went downstairs, I saw it,
and he was like, you're different.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
There's not one like you.
Speaker 4 (20:10):
So this is gonna be difficult for you, this path
of being an actor.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
And he was like al Pacino, de Niro, a MARYL.
Speaker 4 (20:19):
Street, there was no them before them, he says, So
it's going to be a hard and lonely road because
you won't necessarily have a blueprint or something too sure,
you're gonna we're gonna make this up as we go.
And he was like, but if you trust me, I
will give you everything you need.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
At this point, like people are crying in the hallways,
he's saying, you're in.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Well not you're in.
Speaker 4 (20:43):
But I just know as an actor, this is going
to be a long, hard road, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
But with the right people, you can get what you need.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
And he said too of like, you know, don't compare
yourself because you lose every time. Just don't even do that,
I said to him. When I said to other schools,
he was the first.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
One, right.
Speaker 4 (21:06):
So I still had other schools I had to audition for,
and when I asked all of them, because you all
have an interview and they say like, what do you
what would you like from this program? And I've said
to everyone, I want to have the skill set and
toolbox to be able to play any character ever written.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
No matter what I look like. Every single school No,
well no.
Speaker 4 (21:33):
Because you're this where that Yale was the only school
that was like But of course that is exactly what
our curriculum is based off of. So I knew deep
down just from that answer alone, this is where I
want to go.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
Thanks for joining us on table for two.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
Last year, Divine starting the critically acclaimed movie The Holdovers
as Mary Lamb, the head cook at a New England
prep school. I adored her performance and want to know
all about how she prepared for the role and what
it was life working with director Alexander Payne.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
So congratulations on The Holdovers.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
Thank you and if you haven't seen it, you gotta
see this movie. And Devine's been nominated for Best Supporting
Actress for the Academy Awards.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
Congratulations on the Golden.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Globe, Like, holy Canoli, it's a big deal. Tell me
about the story. What resident and you know you're working
with Alexander Payne and you know, yeah, and what resonated
with Mary Lamb and what kind of.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
How did you relate to her?
Speaker 4 (22:52):
The script came with such a level of detail and
authenticity that I usually.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
That like, I don't know how to say it.
Speaker 4 (23:03):
It's like, you know, how you have your standard of
doing something, whether it's cleaning. Let's let you have your
standard of cleaning cleaning person comes over. Let's say your
friends come over, stay in the weekend, and the thing
is like cool, do whatever you want.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
I'm not going to charge you. Just clean up after yourself.
Speaker 4 (23:19):
They clean different than you clean right, and you other
than go behind them and cleaning. That's kind of how
it's been for acting, really right that like script wise
and the details of the character, it wasn't at the
level that I had hoped it to be prior, so
a lot of times I would have to go then
not behind them, but kind of and be like great,
(23:41):
So if you're willing, I would love to collaborate and
bringing in these details and bringing in these nuances. Can
you give me an example, because a lot of times
it comes down to the script and there's certain things
a lot of times that are generalized that's like, well,
(24:02):
let's pontificate on that, like.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
What do you mean?
Speaker 4 (24:05):
Or or you have her doing this, so is that
what you mean to happen? It feels like there's a
missing step, or you have this happening for her, but
nowhere have you explained her history her do you know
what I mean? Like oftentimes I'll deal with like, especially
in TV, she's kind of just there, yeah, to the
(24:27):
service of others, obviously the lead. And so what was
so exciting for me for this script that when I
read it, I was like, Oh, they've already done.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
A really good portion of this.
Speaker 4 (24:42):
So that immediately got my attention and I was like, Aha, okay,
this is different in regards to the caliber and quality.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
Of the script. Usually I'm having to fill in the blanks.
I say, a lot of the blanks are filled in.
Speaker 4 (24:58):
And what was really cool when I I spoke with
when Alex had being called me initially to have the
director's meeting, I wanted I didn't talk too much, and
I wanted to just get an understanding of his sensibility
in regards to storytelling overall and in particular to this project,
and even more so with this woman. And what I
(25:19):
thought that was so amazing is that someone who is
so well decorated and lauded and like and it's like
a Hollywood dollar.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
I don't know what you call it, the male version,
but he's very revered and loved within this industry. There
was no ego. There was a willingness to understand and learn.
Speaker 4 (25:39):
He was very clear of like, you know, there are
some things culturally that I'm not going to know about.
I'm leaning on you to help me with that. Or
I've seen this before, and I think this would be
really a beautiful moment to show this detail. For example,
rollers and like some of the clothes, so when she's
watching the New and she's like in her little like
(26:02):
nightgown whatever, overcoat, nightcoat, whatever you call it, purple. Yeah,
I think initially he wanted her to predominantly be wearing
stuff like that at all times. And I was like, no,
she's still working, even though it's a holiday, she's still working.
And this is a woman who takes pride Like I
(26:23):
wanted it to look like she has. She may not
have much, she has a beautifully well curated closet. You know,
you have some friends where it's like they're more of
like a minimalist with clothing, but everything they put on
us ad. I wanted it to be like that, you
know what I mean, Like she doesn't have a lot,
but you better believe she started all through.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
Everything is well put together. She takes great.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Care of her Yeah, and you see that when you
open up and then you know you end up also
on your son's uniform.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Yeah, but you really see. Yeah, it's like the suit.
Speaker 4 (26:55):
Is starch, yes, and she's always touching things. She's a
very tactile person. Her nails are very like, you know,
manicured and just very put together. Her little jewelry like
everything has a place and a purpose.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
And similar with the rollers. He was like, oh, I
would love it. She's like rocking rollers. I was like, cool.
But in the privacy of her room, right, because she's working.
Speaker 4 (27:18):
Also, this is a black woman in the predominantly all
white environment. There's a certain level in which she's never
gonna and that's part of who she is. She's never
gonna literally and figuratively let her hair all the way down.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
She's never right.
Speaker 4 (27:32):
Yeah, and so but that was cool because I was like, oh,
I don't know, you know, he is who he is,
and I mean literally the utmost respect that sometimes you're
gonna have a little bit of pushback, and there wasn't any.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
It's interesting because now that you share that, that scene
now takes on something, you know. I think I felt
it were when the intimacy of him coming into your
space and you're sitting on the couch and you have
the rollers and you're watching the dating the Newly game, Yes,
and you understand that you're now in Mary's.
Speaker 4 (28:12):
Like very into this space, and it's different than what
you've seen Mary when she's not only.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
In the kitchen, out of the kitchen, in her uniformer,
in her exact street.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
There's a coldness.
Speaker 4 (28:27):
When she's in the kitchen, everything still and industrial and
like sterile to be clean for those purposes. Even in
the when they're like walking throughout the halls of the school,
there's a coldness. There's a warmth when she's in her space,
when she's in her sister's space, and when she's in
the living room. I wanted to bring this sense even
(28:50):
with the clothing of you wanted I wanted people to
want to touch her or no instinctively upon scene, what
that fabric is and what it feels like. I want
it to be a sensory experience in that science bingo.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
I mean it really is.
Speaker 4 (29:08):
Now.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
I'm even you know, picturing the dinner when you're invited
to have the dinner, like just to hear everything about.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
It is like, that's like her Sunday's best.
Speaker 4 (29:18):
Yes, right, that dress shows up at a funeral, at
a wedding, at a graduation, any kind of celebration, right,
that's her best.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
And when you go visit your sister and really, if
you're you gotta see this movie people you got to
see when you go and you're driving there and now
the characters at this point have really created it's a
very complicated relationships.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
It's a very it's a very heartfelt.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
These are complicated people who have been pain in your life.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
And you know you're being driven by Paul.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
They're going to drop you off when they go to Boston,
and you know you're and the way you present there,
you know, and it's the format versus it's also very
important in the relationship you have with Paul's character in
the young man's character, the young man forgetting his name
dominic sss very good, very talented.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
Very talented, I mean Alexander really yeah.
Speaker 4 (30:15):
I think that's one of those many strong suits as
well casting and bringing people together. I think a lot
that we looked out on is we genuinely did and
do have amazing chemistry together, especially me and Paul. There's
something that was just instinctually there, I think, in regardless
to the technical elements in regards to share acting and
(30:38):
by us both being under the same curriculum, but there's
just something kindred about us that showed up. And so
a lot of times we did you know, sometimes we
can do a scene, especially as you're geting to know
the person, there's a dialogue and there's a talking of
what do we want to create and dadada, and we
(31:00):
never did really.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
We just was, you know, we would do.
Speaker 4 (31:05):
We did two to three weeks of tablework, and that
was weird because people have asked like, oh, it's improv
and the answer is yes and no. We did two
to three weeks of rehearsal and tablework, which is unheard
of and we use that time. But we all were
there together all the actors, right, David who is the
writer as well as the director, and we went through
(31:25):
the whole.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
Script scene by scene, and then it was like does
this make sense? Do we like this?
Speaker 4 (31:32):
But we used that time to go through it scene
by scene and then at the end of that we've
seen Evenson say okay, great, so does this seem real?
Does this make sense? Is there anything we should take away?
Anything we should add?
Speaker 3 (31:47):
Because for me it happened quick.
Speaker 4 (31:49):
He offered it to me basically like Thanksgiving weekend, okay,
and then we started filming January.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
First, so I had a lot to do in a
little bit of time.
Speaker 4 (31:59):
Paul had known about it for a while, and Dominic
had gone through I think you said, like eight auditions
and callbacks, so he had been in the whole process.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
It was new for me. So I had a lot
to do in a little bit of time of smoking the.
Speaker 4 (32:13):
Dialect, not really brushing up on my cooking, but cooking
like just getting into the world. Working with Wendy Chuck,
who's the amazing costume designer, we pulled all venture things
and if we didn't, we couldn't get the vintage thinger.
You know, Ventace is fragile, so certain things putting on
at a rip or something like that. We then source
(32:33):
vintage fabric and make custom stuff back. So it was
really again about like the text.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
Tie, I mean you feel from the car, to the weather,
to the couch everything.
Speaker 4 (32:45):
Yeah, And I always wanted to mix a lighter, sheer,
more romantic choose very. I warn't because I'm really the
only female outside of one other character. I felt really
responsible of showing femineity and womanhood in this era, in
this film, and so I always wanted to mix something
(33:09):
sturdy and practical or something soft and like whimsical or angelic, right,
and so like when we go to that Italian restaurant,
I have on like this corduroy pencil skirt, but it's
like periwinkle with these like really dainty like little bouquets
of Paisleys and flowers. But then a very soft, sheer,
(33:30):
powder pink like pussy bow.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
Yeah there's a rap.
Speaker 3 (33:36):
Oh yeah, I had a coat that I just draped
the total.
Speaker 4 (33:39):
I always wanted to show these notes of like Jackie
O vibes or like.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
Coreta cut Scott King vibes, or I wanted.
Speaker 4 (33:46):
To have this sense of like the quintessential woman that
I wanted to make sure or like the dainty necklace
and little small dainty earrings. I wanted that energy to
somehow intercut with this very masculine, antiquated, you know, English almost.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
Vibe that you know prep schools can give.
Speaker 4 (34:10):
It's a constant pressure cooker the entire movie and filming it.
I felt so uncomfortable to constantly be putting a lid on.
She's so contained in a way that I'm not, and
it felt so uncomfortable. But I knew that I was
(34:32):
at the right space. So some of those things is
also divine. Feeling uncomfortable. You know, There's a deliberateness. She
talks much slower than I do. She takes her tom
you know what I mean. I'm very like I'm a
Gemini tours. So it's like and she's like, well, we'll
(34:58):
see right, chop the onions, let's start there. Yeah, you know,
but yeah, there's it's something beautiful to that broken things
can also heal other broken things and it's not that
stigmatism that you need to And this is a beautiful message.
(35:21):
I hope that people catch. You don't need to be
perfect or whole in order.
Speaker 6 (35:26):
To be there or help or be a listening ear
yes for someone and in doing so, more likely than not,
some healing will trickle one to you as well.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
Yeah, today's lunch with Devine has been apic. She is
a true star in her eyes, and you can tell
she's got so much success.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
Ahead of her. She's also a total professional.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
So before she has to leave us to run to
a photo shoot, I'm curious about what projects she has
on the horizon.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
I gotta say, you're really one of her kind, and
you really are. This is your time.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
I mean, you have and I just want to I'm
going to just say you have brideheard coming up.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
Yes, you have Shadow for Rebel Wilson.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
You're starting in that you have an actually thriller with
Kerrie Washington, who I love.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
Our kids in school together, like.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
Exactly shadow of course, and we're talking about your fashion
like this is the year of devind.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
Thank you so much. I'm really excited.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
Oh this is really exciting and I'm super super excited
that we got to spend thank you this time together
because you're just an incredible person. You're forcing you give
back and I love that if anyone's taking anything away
I just feel like what you've taught me today is
share what you learn.
Speaker 3 (36:49):
Because it'll come back to you with what you need
to learn.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
Right.
Speaker 4 (36:52):
That's what I've found in me giving up my knowledge
to someone else. I always like within a month to
the point where I can clock it. Yeah, of like
ah me giving in that way, I've been received in
this way.
Speaker 3 (37:05):
It's all reciprocal.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
Yeah, You've got a big heart. De mind. Thank you
really do. Thank you so much for pulling up a
today on Table for two with bb I absolutely do you.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
Table for two with Bruce Bosi is produced by iHeartRadio
seven three seven Park and Airmail. Our executive producers are
Bruce Bosi and Nathan King. Table for two is researched
and written by Bridget arsenalt Our sound engineers are Paul
Bowman and Alyssa Midcalf. Table for two's la production team
is Danielle Romo and Lorraine Verrez. Our music supervisor is
(37:44):
Randall poster.
Speaker 1 (37:45):
Our talent booking is by James Harkin.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
Special thanks to Amy Sugarman, Uni Cher, Kevin Yuvane, Bobby Bauer,
Alison Kanter Raber, Barbara and Jen and Jeff Klein and
the staff at the Tower Bar in the world famous
Sunset Tower Hotel. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows.
Hey, everyone, and thanks so much for joining me today.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
It's a very special, exciting day because this episode kicks
off the second season of Table for Two. We're thrilled
to be getting back into the swing of things at
my favorite joint in Hollywood, the Tower Bar.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Oh my god, Hi, Hi sweet Hi.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
You might notice that the room is buzzing a bit
more than usual, and I think it's because everyone knows
we're having lunch with today's guest. She's a brilliant actress
who has acted on Broadway, television and in many incredible films.
Her latest movie, The Holdovers, has earned her a Golden
Globe Award, a Critics Choice, a BAFTA, and a Screen
(00:43):
Actors Guild Award.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
To top it off, she's.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Speaker 4 (00:48):
If I could get a saucer, water and Arnold Palmer,
that'd be perfect.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
That's right. Today we're having lunch with the one and
only enjoy Randolph.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
So pull up a chair, grab a glass of rose,
and join us for the first episode of season two.
I'm Bruce Bossi and this is my podcast, Table for two.
(01:22):
You know what's really amazing about you is And I
had no idea your parents took a job.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
You grew up in Hershey and they were house parents,
is there.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Which is interesting.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
So I grew up in Philadelphia and then in eighth grade,
my parents got a When I was in Philadelphia, I
went to prep schools. My mother in particular, because my
mother is an educator, they made sacrifices so that I
could go to private schools and prep schools my entire education.
(01:55):
But I was a what do they call it a
day so I would get bused from the inner city
and go to these like beautiful suburbs and have this
whole other life and come back. I remember coming back
and the first time I had sushi.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
At school and just being like, well, what is this?
I love it?
Speaker 4 (02:16):
And I remember my parents sat me down and they said,
you have to promise us, if you're going to have
these opportunities, that when you come back home, you introduce
us to it, you introduce your friends to it, so
that this world is not just your own. Bring back
what you learn and share, right. They their parents were
(02:37):
adamant about We're going to still live in the inner city,
but we're going to go have that experience and then
you bring back what you've learned and you bring that
back into your community. And that's something that I'm still
aimed to do right and try very hard to do.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
So that was up.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
Until eighth grade, and then we moved to Hershie because
there's a very big boarding school there. The difference with
that boarding school is that at the time we're there,
it could have changed. I'm not sure, but the mission
was that it was it first turned off that Milton Hershey,
the man who made the chocolate bar, his wife couldn't
(03:16):
have kids, and so they created an orphanage and it
was a boy's only orphanage. Then it was boys and girls,
and then that orphanage then turned into a school.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
So where I think, and I don't know how all
schools are ran of these kind of like boarding.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
Schools, but this is a boarding school. At that time,
there was a bit more for at risk youth, so
less of like affluent families dropping their kids off. It
was more of at risk youth giving them an opportunity.
Some how, I had opportunity to.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
Go to these places. And so my.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
Parents were house parents are like dorm parents, and so
we had this big house and we had like ten
to twelve kids.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
That is kind of crazy.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
Yeah, so I know, not only going to school in
these environments and then living in this environment all throughout
high school. So yeah, I definitely think that had an
influence on it, and how my parents had to be
parents to all of us, especially because it's you know
(04:19):
what I mean, So some people don't have parents in
their life. For some people are raised by their grandparents
or you know what I mean, whatever their situation is.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
And so it's always remember how.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
When some kids got left for the holidays or you know,
parents couldn't take them or whatever for whatever reason, how
my parents would try to make it a little extra
special or you know, I've experienced holdovers before my mom
as a teacher, so that never stopped.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
And their house parents, so it's not like a dorm
person in a college sense, where like they only step
in when there's a problem.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
They're in middle school, high school, they're very hands on.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
The develop Yeah, exactly, big response.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
They were parents to all of them. Yeah, and I
had to share my parents with them. Wow.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
I mean, you go to Temple, you get a Bachelor
of Arts, You go to Yale, you get an MFA.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Like that's like a big deal, did you? Like you know,
I know that you.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Pursued a career as an opera singer and a singer,
and like, which is something you know?
Speaker 1 (05:38):
I just no idea.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
And then you sort of pivot when you realize, oh,
the acting bug, the acting that's in you you want
to pursue.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
No, no, that's actually not how it happened.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
So I've always loved music, but growing up I had
a lot of interests. So my parents were kind of like,
we're cool with what. I was always told, We're cool
whatever you want to do, but whatever you do, get
the best education in Canada and be very good at it, right.
And so education and competitiveness is in my blood, right,
(06:09):
It's just it is what it is.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
And so when growing up, when people.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
Were like, oh I want to be a this a
that I jingled for very like, very very late, I
did not know really what I wanted to be. No
high school, I didn't even know. I didn't know what
my career path was going to be. And I remember
in high school there was a girl who came from
Canada a new student, and she was talking about this
performing art school that she went to and I just
(06:38):
was like, this sounds amazing of what she's speaking of.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
So I blindly auditioned for it.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
I got there and it was all classically based, like
they had jazz.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
It mused instrumental, but not like a jazz vocal.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
And I grew up a more like jazz and R
and B and soul and that kind of thing right
with Philadelphia, and like the Philly was sound yeah, and
so that was like a shock to me. I was
just digging around because I was like, I don't know
what this is, so I was like faking it. And
so then we auditioned for an opera and I ended
(07:13):
up getting one of the leads and I was like,
this doesn't even make sense. Wow, So this is a
pipe yeah, it's I knew I had singing, but.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Question mark right.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
And so this was in Traverse City. This is like
two three hours away from Detroit.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
But where this.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
Magical beautiful place is. It's like on a lake and
all these pine trees. So there's like but we're like
in cabins, right, So we're roughing out in cabins and
I got sick due to like the mold and stuff.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
So I ended up completely losing my voice.
Speaker 4 (07:48):
Okay, So I'm out of performing our school with no
voice as one of the leads. But I will never
forget that experience because I feel like it was a
very spiritual, soulful experience in which, in that moment I
was a junior in high school, I was understanding what
(08:09):
it meant to be an artist and to begin to
think of process. And I never had thought of stuff
like that before because I couldn't speak, so my inner
voice was the loudest voice.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
I could hear.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
And everyone around me is having a good time and
expressing themselves creatively and I can't. So it's like I
had to rely on other senses, and I was so
internal that it allowed me to begin to I think
that truly was the place of me birthing.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Myself as an artist.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
And so.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
Magically I get my voice back the day of the show.
It's weird, It's really it doesn't make sense. My parents
were there. I'm like, why are you coming? I don't
even have a voice. My voice comes back.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
It magical, So they not replaced you like somebody.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
Understudy one of the sweetest women girls in the world,
and literally the teacher because they made me come to
all the rehearsals.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
I was like, this is brutal. Why are you doing
this to me?
Speaker 4 (09:09):
They made me come to rehearsals and I never get
the teachers like just lightly part your lips and breathe
as everyone's singing around you. Because and this happened when
I went to a Barbara Streiss concert and I said
in like the tenth row, and I did it again,
like as an adult, our vocal chords vibrate the sound
we're hearing. So that's like, have you ever gone to
(09:31):
like a rock concert or like where someone's like screaming
and when you go home you either literally have a
sore throat or you're like you just feel like right,
it's because our vocal cords are vibrating to match that.
When I went to the Badge concert, I was in
beautiful voice. I was like, oh, she has beautiful forbes
(09:52):
because my vocal chorus feel yummy, right and so extinctively,
I guess my body the anatomy I was rehearsing though
I was not phonating, and so I was able.
Speaker 5 (10:05):
To do and it was healing. It was healing, yeah,
and to wait, so now it's getting very close to
the night that you're gonna have this performance. Do you
all of a sudden started saying.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Why did you? Was the day of the morning they say.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
The teacher was like, we're going to do vocal warm up,
and I was like, why, I'm not performing tonight. And
we started doing vocal warm up and it was like
the first time that I was starting to phone it.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
This is a crazy story. And I literally am like.
Speaker 4 (10:37):
Oh my god, I'm going up the register and I'm
going higher and higher and I never get I asked
the girl.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
She was in the room with me.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
I could not believe this understudy was in the room
and I was looking at her and I'm crying and
I'm like, I'm so sorry because I'm.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Going and she was so sweet.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
I was like, just let I said, let me go
on tonight because my family is here.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
You can do the rest of the shows. Just give me.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Yeah, no, she's been doing it the whole time. I'm
not gonna sit. But I was like, just give me
this one. It was opening up, but just give me
this one. Parents are here. We could do the rest, right.
So at this one, I'm now like schools are coming.
All the stuff Julliarden. You know Manhattan's College, you know the
School of Music. Everyone's there.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
So I was like, okay, I guess I'm an opera singer.
Went to Temple for the teacher. Opera to me was
like what Shakespeare is to some people, right, you gotta
imagine I'm from inner city Philadelphia.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
I wanted you know how when you sometimes can watch
Shakespeare and it's literally like a foreign like you don't
know what that person is.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
It takes a while to get the ears you even
understand that.
Speaker 4 (11:45):
My teacher says, that's when they're doing it for themselves,
when you're doing it for the service of the work.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Because think about it, it's just.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
Old English, yes, And when people were watching Shakespeare it
was in the bottom it was actually like very broad
comedy and drama that even uneducated people could understand and right,
but when we sometimes put this high falutin thing on it,
(12:17):
same thing for opera.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
The only difference is quite literally in another language.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
So I was like, I want to make sure my
reasoning for wanting coaching, and guess what we're gonna call
it was so that my family when they came could
understand and other inner city people who came where tip
was the city school could understand what was happening, which
to me they connected.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Brings me back to when your parents said, no matter
what you learn, you write, that's right party exactly.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
Somehow they thought I was in the mix as someone
that was now trying to leave the music department to
go to the theater department.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
Was not the case.
Speaker 4 (13:00):
I just wanted to make it make sense for the
viewer because I was very much so sold at this
point on being an opera singer. But my teacher told me,
I can go travel the world, eat pasta, eat really
good food, men are gon a dote with me. I
can wear gowns, furs, lots of money. I was like,
this is me, this is me?
Speaker 3 (13:18):
Are you kidding? This is me?
Speaker 4 (13:20):
And so I was very much into this. I was this,
are you going to tell me no griping with what?
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Please me?
Speaker 4 (13:32):
So they got upset and they essentially flunked me up.
Really m junior year in conservatories it is really like
your senior year. It's like your big all culminating, almost
like your senior thesis.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
That happens in your junior year.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
You do an aria and every language with every like
the romance linguage.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
So I don't know Germans on the romance things, but.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
German English, Uh, Spanish, Allian, French. And then you may
do like one other English or like another for free
you can throw in there.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Yeah, but it's like six seven pieces they flung to me.
No way had a full ride.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Yeah, welcome back to Table for two. Today we're having
(14:36):
lunch with Dave and Joy Randolph and talking about her
path to acting. Before the break, she was telling us
about leaving the music program at Temple University unexpectedly, So
how did she make the pivot to the stage?
Speaker 3 (14:50):
So why what's happening? Right?
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (14:52):
It was if it was like the store is closed, right,
like the great is coming down or up rather for me?
And I was like, and it was this thing of
this inner monologue of this isn't about you.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
Don't let this penetrate you.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
This isn't your story, right, so don't even attach yourself
to it. Right, So this is happening and they're saying this,
and there's just like there was a disassociation.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
I think a healthy one.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
And I called my mother and I'm I'm blistened. This
is my junior year.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
You're like senior year is.
Speaker 4 (15:29):
Just about what opera house or what symphony am I
gonna be connected to?
Speaker 3 (15:34):
That's all.
Speaker 4 (15:34):
The senior year is putting you at what what house
are you going to be at?
Speaker 3 (15:40):
And so my mom, cool as.
Speaker 4 (15:43):
A cucumber, said, I'm gonna give you the weekend to,
you know, feel everything you're feeling, and then on Monday,
you're gonna go across the street and you're going to
apply and see if your credits can transfer over into
the theater department. I will never forget I was on
(16:03):
the street. I had a tantrum in the middle. I'm
not an actor.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
I don't want to losing it. My mom was like,
do you trust me?
Speaker 4 (16:16):
I'm telling you see if the credits can transfer.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
She said. I looked online.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
It seems like most of your credits can transfer. You're
gonna still graduate on time. Go across the street and
apply to the acting department. I came there dragging my
you know, our little kid just drags their backpack as
a and I'm.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
Literally like, here's my actor. She's like, there are you short?
Speaker 4 (16:46):
Like no ants come here later like a four year old,
like well, you can't even literally like I'm gonna let
it and she was like okay. Well, and so I
was there for a year and I'm so grateful because
they saw something in me. And I was only there
(17:09):
for a couple of months before December approached that next
year and I had to apply. Well, if you wanted to,
that would be the time that you applied for graduate school.
And remember we came back from Christmas break and the
Dan asked me to come into his office and he
had four applications on his desk. He said, I just
(17:31):
need you to sign right here. I said, what is this?
And he was like, you're applying for graduate school?
Speaker 3 (17:36):
Now? Mind you.
Speaker 4 (17:36):
I'm literally in just survival mode of like diploma, nothing
else done. And I was like, no, sir. He goes, well,
what else are you going to do when you graduate?
I was like, well, I don't know, but I love
to say. He goes, well, that's you always will have that.
But you have a gift here, and I just want
you to explore it. You gotta taste. I mean, moms, nothing,
(18:00):
I knew nothing of it. But then I'm looking at
these and I'm like, yale n yu.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
What like the top one's top ones? I don't even
know what acting is really yet.
Speaker 4 (18:11):
And Yale was my first one and.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
I just went just one interviewed, did an audience.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
Yes, and all these kids are crying and throwing up
in the corner, and I'm like, what is this?
Speaker 3 (18:26):
This is why I don't like these actors. They're weird and
too you know what I mean, Like.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
Musicians are a lot, but Jesus, you're actually like a
tenors too much. And I had one of my first
interviews and it was Ron van Lutz, who's a god.
(18:53):
I don't know who this man is. And he's like,
do you know where you're at? And I was like,
oh my god, did I come to the wrong school?
Because they were like, pa, you know.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
I was like, I came to the wrong school. He cause, no, no, no, no,
You're at the right place. But do you know where
you're at? I said.
Speaker 4 (19:07):
They told me it was the Yell School dramaser and
he was like, go downstairs and just walk the hallway
and come back. So I walked downstairs to their cabaret
and on the walls it's pictures of students from the
past as students. So I'm seeing Meryl Street in the boat,
(19:33):
I'm seeing Paul Giamatti with a clown nose on Leev Schreibern.
I'm seeing Angela Bassett with Lauren Fishburn and in August
Wilson productive like, what is this place?
Speaker 3 (19:52):
Yea, and I come back upstairs and I was like, okay, cool,
you know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (19:59):
He I was like, I went downstairs, I saw it,
and he was like, you're different.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
There's not one like you.
Speaker 4 (20:10):
So this is gonna be difficult for you, this path
of being an actor.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
And he was like al Pacino, de Niro, a MARYL.
Speaker 4 (20:19):
Street, there was no them before them, he says, So
it's going to be a hard and lonely road because
you won't necessarily have a blueprint or something too sure,
you're gonna we're gonna make this up as we go.
And he was like, but if you trust me, I
will give you everything you need.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
At this point, like people are crying in the hallways,
he's saying, you're in.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Well not you're in.
Speaker 4 (20:43):
But I just know as an actor, this is going
to be a long, hard road, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
But with the right people, you can get what you need.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
And he said too of like, you know, don't compare
yourself because you lose every time. Just don't even do that,
I said to him. When I said to other schools,
he was the first.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
One, right.
Speaker 4 (21:06):
So I still had other schools I had to audition for,
and when I asked all of them, because you all
have an interview and they say like, what do you
what would you like from this program? And I've said
to everyone, I want to have the skill set and
toolbox to be able to play any character ever written.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
No matter what I look like. Every single school No,
well no.
Speaker 4 (21:33):
Because you're this where that Yale was the only school
that was like But of course that is exactly what
our curriculum is based off of. So I knew deep
down just from that answer alone, this is where I
want to go.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
Thanks for joining us on table for two.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
Last year, Divine starting the critically acclaimed movie The Holdovers
as Mary Lamb, the head cook at a New England
prep school. I adored her performance and want to know
all about how she prepared for the role and what
it was life working with director Alexander Payne.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
So congratulations on The Holdovers.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
Thank you and if you haven't seen it, you gotta
see this movie. And Devine's been nominated for Best Supporting
Actress for the Academy Awards.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
Congratulations on the Golden.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Globe, Like, holy Canoli, it's a big deal. Tell me
about the story. What resident and you know you're working
with Alexander Payne and you know, yeah, and what resonated
with Mary Lamb and what kind of.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
How did you relate to her?
Speaker 4 (22:52):
The script came with such a level of detail and
authenticity that I usually.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
That like, I don't know how to say it.
Speaker 4 (23:03):
It's like, you know, how you have your standard of
doing something, whether it's cleaning. Let's let you have your
standard of cleaning cleaning person comes over. Let's say your
friends come over, stay in the weekend, and the thing
is like cool, do whatever you want.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
I'm not going to charge you. Just clean up after yourself.
Speaker 4 (23:19):
They clean different than you clean right, and you other
than go behind them and cleaning. That's kind of how
it's been for acting, really right that like script wise
and the details of the character, it wasn't at the
level that I had hoped it to be prior, so
a lot of times I would have to go then
not behind them, but kind of and be like great,
(23:41):
So if you're willing, I would love to collaborate and
bringing in these details and bringing in these nuances. Can
you give me an example, because a lot of times
it comes down to the script and there's certain things
a lot of times that are generalized that's like, well,
(24:02):
let's pontificate on that, like.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
What do you mean?
Speaker 4 (24:05):
Or or you have her doing this, so is that
what you mean to happen? It feels like there's a
missing step, or you have this happening for her, but
nowhere have you explained her history her do you know
what I mean? Like oftentimes I'll deal with like, especially
in TV, she's kind of just there, yeah, to the
(24:27):
service of others, obviously the lead. And so what was
so exciting for me for this script that when I
read it, I was like, Oh, they've already done.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
A really good portion of this.
Speaker 4 (24:42):
So that immediately got my attention and I was like, Aha, okay,
this is different in regards to the caliber and quality.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
Of the script. Usually I'm having to fill in the blanks.
I say, a lot of the blanks are filled in.
Speaker 4 (24:58):
And what was really cool when I I spoke with
when Alex had being called me initially to have the
director's meeting, I wanted I didn't talk too much, and
I wanted to just get an understanding of his sensibility
in regards to storytelling overall and in particular to this project,
and even more so with this woman. And what I
(25:19):
thought that was so amazing is that someone who is
so well decorated and lauded and like and it's like
a Hollywood dollar.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
I don't know what you call it, the male version,
but he's very revered and loved within this industry. There
was no ego. There was a willingness to understand and learn.
Speaker 4 (25:39):
He was very clear of like, you know, there are
some things culturally that I'm not going to know about.
I'm leaning on you to help me with that. Or
I've seen this before, and I think this would be
really a beautiful moment to show this detail. For example,
rollers and like some of the clothes, so when she's
watching the New and she's like in her little like
(26:02):
nightgown whatever, overcoat, nightcoat, whatever you call it, purple. Yeah,
I think initially he wanted her to predominantly be wearing
stuff like that at all times. And I was like, no,
she's still working, even though it's a holiday, she's still working.
And this is a woman who takes pride Like I
(26:23):
wanted it to look like she has. She may not
have much, she has a beautifully well curated closet. You know,
you have some friends where it's like they're more of
like a minimalist with clothing, but everything they put on
us ad. I wanted it to be like that, you
know what I mean, Like she doesn't have a lot,
but you better believe she started all through.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
Everything is well put together. She takes great.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Care of her Yeah, and you see that when you
open up and then you know you end up also
on your son's uniform.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Yeah, but you really see. Yeah, it's like the suit.
Speaker 4 (26:55):
Is starch, yes, and she's always touching things. She's a
very tactile person. Her nails are very like, you know,
manicured and just very put together. Her little jewelry like
everything has a place and a purpose.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
And similar with the rollers. He was like, oh, I
would love it. She's like rocking rollers. I was like, cool.
But in the privacy of her room, right, because she's working.
Speaker 4 (27:18):
Also, this is a black woman in the predominantly all
white environment. There's a certain level in which she's never
gonna and that's part of who she is. She's never
gonna literally and figuratively let her hair all the way down.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
She's never right.
Speaker 4 (27:32):
Yeah, and so but that was cool because I was like, oh,
I don't know, you know, he is who he is,
and I mean literally the utmost respect that sometimes you're
gonna have a little bit of pushback, and there wasn't any.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
It's interesting because now that you share that, that scene
now takes on something, you know. I think I felt
it were when the intimacy of him coming into your
space and you're sitting on the couch and you have
the rollers and you're watching the dating the Newly game, Yes,
and you understand that you're now in Mary's.
Speaker 4 (28:12):
Like very into this space, and it's different than what
you've seen Mary when she's not only.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
In the kitchen, out of the kitchen, in her uniformer,
in her exact street.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
There's a coldness.
Speaker 4 (28:27):
When she's in the kitchen, everything still and industrial and
like sterile to be clean for those purposes. Even in
the when they're like walking throughout the halls of the school,
there's a coldness. There's a warmth when she's in her space,
when she's in her sister's space, and when she's in
the living room. I wanted to bring this sense even
(28:50):
with the clothing of you wanted I wanted people to
want to touch her or no instinctively upon scene, what
that fabric is and what it feels like. I want
it to be a sensory experience in that science bingo.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
I mean it really is.
Speaker 4 (29:08):
Now.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
I'm even you know, picturing the dinner when you're invited
to have the dinner, like just to hear everything about.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
It is like, that's like her Sunday's best.
Speaker 4 (29:18):
Yes, right, that dress shows up at a funeral, at
a wedding, at a graduation, any kind of celebration, right,
that's her best.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
And when you go visit your sister and really, if
you're you gotta see this movie people you got to
see when you go and you're driving there and now
the characters at this point have really created it's a
very complicated relationships.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
It's a very it's a very heartfelt.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
These are complicated people who have been pain in your life.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
And you know you're being driven by Paul.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
They're going to drop you off when they go to Boston,
and you know you're and the way you present there,
you know, and it's the format versus it's also very
important in the relationship you have with Paul's character in
the young man's character, the young man forgetting his name
dominic sss very good, very talented.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
Very talented, I mean Alexander really yeah.
Speaker 4 (30:15):
I think that's one of those many strong suits as
well casting and bringing people together. I think a lot
that we looked out on is we genuinely did and
do have amazing chemistry together, especially me and Paul. There's
something that was just instinctually there, I think, in regardless
to the technical elements in regards to share acting and
(30:38):
by us both being under the same curriculum, but there's
just something kindred about us that showed up. And so
a lot of times we did you know, sometimes we
can do a scene, especially as you're geting to know
the person, there's a dialogue and there's a talking of
what do we want to create and dadada, and we
(31:00):
never did really.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
We just was, you know, we would do.
Speaker 4 (31:05):
We did two to three weeks of tablework, and that
was weird because people have asked like, oh, it's improv
and the answer is yes and no. We did two
to three weeks of rehearsal and tablework, which is unheard
of and we use that time. But we all were
there together all the actors, right, David who is the
writer as well as the director, and we went through
(31:25):
the whole.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
Script scene by scene, and then it was like does
this make sense? Do we like this?
Speaker 4 (31:32):
But we used that time to go through it scene
by scene and then at the end of that we've
seen Evenson say okay, great, so does this seem real?
Does this make sense? Is there anything we should take away?
Anything we should add?
Speaker 3 (31:47):
Because for me it happened quick.
Speaker 4 (31:49):
He offered it to me basically like Thanksgiving weekend, okay,
and then we started filming January.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
First, so I had a lot to do in a
little bit of time.
Speaker 4 (31:59):
Paul had known about it for a while, and Dominic
had gone through I think you said, like eight auditions
and callbacks, so he had been in the whole process.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
It was new for me. So I had a lot
to do in a little bit of time of smoking the.
Speaker 4 (32:13):
Dialect, not really brushing up on my cooking, but cooking
like just getting into the world. Working with Wendy Chuck,
who's the amazing costume designer, we pulled all venture things
and if we didn't, we couldn't get the vintage thinger.
You know, Ventace is fragile, so certain things putting on
at a rip or something like that. We then source
(32:33):
vintage fabric and make custom stuff back. So it was
really again about like the text.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
Tie, I mean you feel from the car, to the weather,
to the couch everything.
Speaker 4 (32:45):
Yeah, And I always wanted to mix a lighter, sheer,
more romantic choose very. I warn't because I'm really the
only female outside of one other character. I felt really
responsible of showing femineity and womanhood in this era, in
this film, and so I always wanted to mix something
(33:09):
sturdy and practical or something soft and like whimsical or angelic, right,
and so like when we go to that Italian restaurant,
I have on like this corduroy pencil skirt, but it's
like periwinkle with these like really dainty like little bouquets
of Paisleys and flowers. But then a very soft, sheer,
(33:30):
powder pink like pussy bow.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
Yeah there's a rap.
Speaker 3 (33:36):
Oh yeah, I had a coat that I just draped
the total.
Speaker 4 (33:39):
I always wanted to show these notes of like Jackie
O vibes or like.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
Coreta cut Scott King vibes, or I wanted.
Speaker 4 (33:46):
To have this sense of like the quintessential woman that
I wanted to make sure or like the dainty necklace
and little small dainty earrings. I wanted that energy to
somehow intercut with this very masculine, antiquated, you know, English almost.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
Vibe that you know prep schools can give.
Speaker 4 (34:10):
It's a constant pressure cooker the entire movie and filming it.
I felt so uncomfortable to constantly be putting a lid on.
She's so contained in a way that I'm not, and
it felt so uncomfortable. But I knew that I was
(34:32):
at the right space. So some of those things is
also divine. Feeling uncomfortable. You know, There's a deliberateness. She
talks much slower than I do. She takes her tom
you know what I mean. I'm very like I'm a
Gemini tours. So it's like and she's like, well, we'll
(34:58):
see right, chop the onions, let's start there. Yeah, you know,
but yeah, there's it's something beautiful to that broken things
can also heal other broken things and it's not that
stigmatism that you need to And this is a beautiful message.
(35:21):
I hope that people catch. You don't need to be
perfect or whole in order.
Speaker 6 (35:26):
To be there or help or be a listening ear
yes for someone and in doing so, more likely than not,
some healing will trickle one to you as well.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
Yeah, today's lunch with Devine has been apic. She is
a true star in her eyes, and you can tell
she's got so much success.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
Ahead of her. She's also a total professional.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
So before she has to leave us to run to
a photo shoot, I'm curious about what projects she has
on the horizon.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
I gotta say, you're really one of her kind, and
you really are. This is your time.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
I mean, you have and I just want to I'm
going to just say you have brideheard coming up.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
Yes, you have Shadow for Rebel Wilson.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
You're starting in that you have an actually thriller with
Kerrie Washington, who I love.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
Our kids in school together, like.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
Exactly shadow of course, and we're talking about your fashion
like this is the year of devind.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
Thank you so much. I'm really excited.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
Oh this is really exciting and I'm super super excited
that we got to spend thank you this time together
because you're just an incredible person. You're forcing you give
back and I love that if anyone's taking anything away
I just feel like what you've taught me today is
share what you learn.
Speaker 3 (36:49):
Because it'll come back to you with what you need
to learn.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
Right.
Speaker 4 (36:52):
That's what I've found in me giving up my knowledge
to someone else. I always like within a month to
the point where I can clock it. Yeah, of like
ah me giving in that way, I've been received in
this way.
Speaker 3 (37:05):
It's all reciprocal.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
Yeah, You've got a big heart. De mind. Thank you
really do. Thank you so much for pulling up a
today on Table for two with bb I absolutely do you.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
Table for two with Bruce Bosi is produced by iHeartRadio
seven three seven Park and Airmail. Our executive producers are
Bruce Bosi and Nathan King. Table for two is researched
and written by Bridget arsenalt Our sound engineers are Paul
Bowman and Alyssa Midcalf. Table for two's la production team
is Danielle Romo and Lorraine Verrez. Our music supervisor is
(37:44):
Randall poster.
Speaker 1 (37:45):
Our talent booking is by James Harkin.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
Special thanks to Amy Sugarman, Uni Cher, Kevin Yuvane, Bobby Bauer,
Alison Kanter Raber, Barbara and Jen and Jeff Klein and
the staff at the Tower Bar in the world famous
Sunset Tower Hotel. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows.
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