Awards season has belonged to Da’Vine Joy Randolph, whose sharp and poignant performance in The Holdovers has earned her praise from viewers and critics. At this year’s Oscars, all eyes were on the actress, who was nominated for one of the evening’s biggest awards: Best Supporting Actress. She won the accolade, making her the tenth Black actress to do so, following Ariana DeBose, Regina King, Viola Davis, Lupita Nyong’o, Octavia Spencer, Mo’Nique, Jennifer Hudson, Whoopi Goldberg and Hattie McDaniel.
“God is so good,” Randolph started her emotional acceptance speech. “God is so good, you know.”
She then revealed that acting wasn’t what she envisioned herself doing.
“I didn’t think I was supposed to be doing this as a career, I started off as a singer and my mother said to me, ‘Go across that street to that theater department, there’s something for you there.’ And I thank my mother for doing that,” she recounted.
Randolph continued, thanking “all the people who have stepped in my path and has been there for me, who has ushered me and guided me, I am so grateful to all you beautiful people out here.”
“For so long, I’ve always wanted to be different, and now I realize I just need to be myself and I thank you, I thank you for seeing me,” she added, prompting applause.
The Dolemite Is My Name alum shed a tear while thanking acting professor Ron Van Lieu, who taught Randolph at Yale’s prestigious drama school, for acknowledging her and her talent.
“Ron Van Lieu, I thank you,” she said. “When I was the only Black girl in that class, when you saw me and you told me I was enough, and when I told you that I didn’t seem myself you said, ‘Fine, we’re going to forge our own path. You’re going to lay a trail for yourself.'”
The camera caught many in the audience wiping away tears during Randolph’s speech, including her The Holdovers co-star Paul Giamatti. Fans watching at home were just as moved.
