More than anything, it’s the level of detail in Randolph’s performance that is striking—how she moves her arms as she smokes, or the finishing touches in her intricate costumes—and it’s something that’s present in everything she does. In the 25 or so minutes that she and I spend together, she’s overflowing with references, frequently handing her phone over to me excitedly to show me a moodboard for her onscreen hair and make-up look, or a clip from an Old Hollywood classic that inspired a red-carpet outfit. For her, the work never stops. It’s the reason that (barring catastrophe), when she finally walks up to that Oscar podium, I know her speech will be as well considered as her dress.
Here, the actor speaks to us about cooking for real on the set, the most surreal moment of her awards season to date (it involves The Rock), and why she won’t be watching on Oscar nominations morning.
Vogue: You’ve said that, in the past, you’ve been offered parts that haven’t felt fully realized. Tell me why Mary felt so different.
Da’Vine Joy Randolph: There’s been a shift as I’ve been working, but I don’t know if being offered this part was, like, I’m ascending, or if I just happened to get a really good script [laughs]. I still wonder: As I continue my career, is the writing going to get better, or was this just a very unique situation? But Mary—it was just so exciting to play her, because she was fully realized and fleshed out, and that doesn’t happen often. And then, as we were working, the director and the writer [David Hemingson] were open to continuing to make her even more fleshed out and realized. There was no mansplaining and nothing, culturally, that didn’t get asked. I was shocked. I thought that they’d be telling me, like, this is what she does.
Do you remember a moment when you spoke to them about something you thought should be different?
I remember a couple. One thing we talked about was: were we going to address the elephant in the room that is this time period, the ’70s, and racism and segregation and all that stuff? In the end, we realized that just by her being onscreen, you get it, you know? Literally, she’s like a walking billboard of it—in the best and in the saddest way possible. So, we didn’t have to state the obvious. The other thing I remember is that Alexander wanted me to have curlers in my hair for most of the movie. I was like, “She’s not… that’s like you showed up to work in pajamas.” And I don’t think that was what he wanted to go for, though I did understand this sense of seeing her have moments when her guard was down. I was like, “Sure, let’s find a place where that works, but to do it throughout the entire movie? No—she’s working.” And he got it, he understood.