- 4 weeks ago
Da'Vine Joy Randolph
Mikki Taylor
Mikki Taylor
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00We have an Oscar nominee, we have an Oscar nominee, Dave Vine Joy Randolph in the house,
00:11okay, and here to introduce this very special fireside chat for all of you and all of you
00:16watching online. Please welcome author, media personality, and Essence Magazine editor at
00:22large, Mickey Taylor. Please make some noise. Thank you, thank you. Well, hello, Hollywood
00:31house. Yeah. Are you ready? I am so excited about this moment of purpose. I'm going to
00:40tell you a little bit about it. Today's keynote conversation, I want you to know that's what
00:46it is, is with one who's defining success on her own terms. That's what you want to
00:52underline. Now, she's a Temple University and Yale School drama graduate who also studied
00:58at the British American Drama Academy in London, but there's more. Today, this critically acclaimed
01:05SAG Golden Globe producers, BAFTA award winning, you all know the list. Yeah, you know the list.
01:12is known for her commanding performances on stage and screen. In fact, what I've decided
01:18that it's a ministry. Yeah, how about that? She was born ready for her close-up and has starred
01:25in This Is Us, The Idol, Empire, Only Murders in the Building, and yes, The Holdovers, which
01:32has earned her an Academy Award nomination. Won't you please welcome the Davi Joy Randolph.
01:42Good afternoon. I'm so happy to be here. It is such an honor to sit with you and to have
01:58this conversation and to just congratulate you for showing what it means to stride in your
02:06purpose. That. You know, James Baldwin, who we had the pleasure of meeting back in the day
02:13at Essence, he said, those who say it can't be done are usually interrupted by others who
02:19are doing it. And that defines you. Yeah. So I have to ask the question, because I'm serving
02:28here today. I can't be selfish. What would you attribute as the single most important factor
02:34to your success? My community. Say that. My support system that's governed in the word
02:41and having women in my life since I was a young age, that no one in my family does this. There's
02:50no singers. There's no actors. So everybody was kind of like, where did this come from?
02:56But what I love and I'm so grateful for is my family never put limitations on me. I didn't
03:03really know what I wanted as a career very late. I'm talking maybe my junior year of high school
03:10because I was in an environment in which I did it all. I was in several different after school
03:20activities, performance groups, and it wasn't just all performance. I thought maybe I might be a cook.
03:26Maybe I might be a lawyer. Maybe I might. And I say that to say I kept it diversified. So now I
03:32realized that's part of my personality. So now there's a joy I get to experience as an actor,
03:38right? When I'm reading a script and they say, oh, she's a chef. Well, that just so happened to be
03:44something that I enjoyed to do. You know what I mean? So it was, and I say this to say, especially
03:49for our community, you don't have to have people in your circle that knows what you're doing
03:56in order to still breathe life into you, right? Sometimes I think if we don't have the same kind
04:03of resources as everybody else does, sometimes it's just an encouraging word. Sometimes it was my
04:10neighbor literally helping my mom out by picking me up to take me to camp because my mom was working
04:18two shifts in order to pay for the camp for me to go to. And you know what I mean? Sometimes it's just
04:23that person interceding to furthering and putting together your dream and your goal. So I think
04:29a lot of it was truly how I was raised, my reverence to my elders, but truly my community.
04:38You know, I so love that. I always say that one's greatness was not designed to operate in isolation.
04:44And I love that you not only had that Genesis experience coming of age, but you still had
04:51that support system. And it's not for you. Right. So as my community was working to usher me to a place
04:59that I didn't even know, what I knew was whatever's supposed to happen when this happens, this is for
05:07them. So that whether it is again, like a neighbor, an auntie, and I say this because there's a lot of
05:13regular degular blue collar people in our community, but you don't understand just how powerful their
05:20presence can be. I remember my mom didn't have money and it would be a lady down the street that
05:25used to do hair and I would have an audition and she would like, you know what Joyce, don't even worry
05:29about it. I got it. And she would do my hair. And then I would feel confident to go to the audition
05:35and book it. And then so then I felt pride to then come back with my little $20 to the lady on a block
05:42and be like, I booked it. And this is my first check. And I want to pay you back. You see what I'm
05:46saying? You don't know when and where the blessings will flow from, but it's not for you.
05:53That's right. Well, you know what they say. He will not continue to send blessings to you if he
06:00can't send them through you. And so I appreciate you saying, letting the record show. Yeah.
06:12It's the overflow. It's the overflow. It's the overflow. And it's not that he can't give you
06:17the abundance. He just want to make sure you know what to do with it. And to be the vessel.
06:21To be the vessel. To usher it. Usher it. Like a river. It needs to go exactly where it needs to
06:28go to. Right. And it's through you. It's not to you. Come on now. You've said that in the past
06:35you've been offered parts that haven't felt fully realized. And then came the holdovers. Tell us why
06:43stepping into the shoes of a Mary felt so different. I could tell from reading the script that the director
06:50and the writer had a very close relationship with their mother. And by me seeing that, I knew I had
06:56a way in. Because I knew, real talk, I could impressionize them, encourage them what it meant
07:06to be a black woman through the love of their mother. Does that make sense? Totally.
07:11It wasn't about, because in some cases I'd be like, well, okay. You know, but because I went to their
07:18heart and their loves and reverence for their mothers. And so what I said was, we're going to
07:24tell a universal story, but there's going to be certain things along the way that you're just
07:30not going to know about. But it's okay. I got you. So if you trust me to have you, I'll trust you to
07:38have me. And so what was beautiful about it is that it was open, if that makes sense. See, sometimes
07:46it's interesting because when the whole COVID and Black Lives Matter stuff hit, just to get a little
07:54off topic, I was trying to figure out for myself, what is my form of activism? And when I began to
07:59understand that my activism is in my artistry. And so what I was doing, and I didn't know that I was
08:05activism, and it shows up in my work, I'm creating subliminal messages to y'all in every single
08:14character that I do. I make sure that this woman is authentic and correct with her hair, her clothes,
08:23the things she says. It is a love letter back to us saying, I see you and I got you. So with this
08:31character in particular, her hair, like they wanted me to be in rollers. He wanted me to be in rollers
08:37and a muumuu the whole time. I said, let me tell you something. I don't know what your mom do.
08:43Right. But this is a job. He goes, but you know, it's, it's vacation. It's the holdover. I said,
08:48do she have to wake up and cook? Do she have to serve food? So for example, I wanted her to be,
08:54the first thing I said was, is she the help? Or is she a trained cook? That was the first question
09:02I had when we were just having conversations. He said, no, no, no. She's trained. I said, okay,
09:08well now we can start having a conversation because I'm not doing the help. But now we can have a
09:13trained, informed conversation. So then I said, great. So since she's trained, she will have a uniform
09:19on. And she's going to wear white because white dignifies that person has done training. And it's
09:27almost like your badge. You earn that when you, it's like how a doctor, when they graduate, get
09:33the stethoscope, you earn that. So I gave them examples and pull imagery. And I referenced Dokey
09:40Chase, who's in New Orleans, who she did so many dignitaries and presidents and stuff like that.
09:46And I showed them, I said, this is real because it happened. So this is going to be our example.
09:51So then we have me in whites. Then I said, listen, her hair is going to be a thing. This is a woman
09:59who takes pride. I don't care if she's grieving and going through all this stuff. She's going to
10:03carry herself because in carrying herself, that keeps her up. Her hair, when she's working in the bun,
10:09that's the first season of Wheezy in the Jeffersons. Because what they did, what I thought was smart was,
10:14Wheezy wasn't yet into the presence of her wealth. The first season, as they say, moving on up,
10:24George was all about it. Wheezy didn't pop out that press fro until a whole season later. She was
10:31still giving you blue collar. So I have that moment. I have the moment in the, at the Christmas party,
10:38I ripped it straight from in 1970. Phyllis Hyman had an iconic, I'm from Philadelphia. She had an iconic
10:46album cover where she's in this off the shoulder, orange caftan, and they just whooped and flipped
10:52her hair up a certain way. I said, I want that for that. I wanted my grandmother's glasses. So I showed
10:58them a picture of my grandmother's glass. I said, props, if you could please find it. They found it.
11:02It's stuff like that because I wanted it to be, first and foremost, this is what we were talking
11:06about before. Not to get deep, but when God was speaking his word, he wasn't just going to the
11:24high priestess that already knew the information. God went to the people who needed it the most.
11:31The people of the forgotten, the shut-in. And so similarly with my work as a woman of color,
11:43I got training for the legitimacy so that no one could tell me no. You can try, but I have the
11:51diplomas. So you're going to have to come up with a really good reason that's not going to really show
11:57your hand as to why you're saying no to me, number one. Number two, yes, it is important to
12:04be a part of certain projects where it's us top to bottom. We need more projects like that.
12:10It's also part of my personal ministry that I want to be in spaces where we're not and infiltrate,
12:19like a holdovers, for example, because a blessing was in an all-white production company in Boston.
12:25Say that. In Boston.
12:28Boston. Me by my lonesome. In Boston.
12:32I got to be my authentic self. People got to experience this. People got to learn from this.
12:40People got to understand about hair. About you wouldn't be walking around with rollers.
12:46About how, you know, there's a certain way in which a black woman carries herself. See,
12:53they couldn't get past, but she's grieving, but she's sad. There's something different about us.
13:00That's right. Yeah.
13:02That in the midst of our pain and in the midst of our plight, we have the nerve to be able
13:07to be there for others. Show up. Right. And show out. That's right. That's right.
13:11And so that was my mission. Yeah. I wanted to show this fully realized woman. And the reality is
13:19the greatest joy I take is that not only would this be something that y'all saw, I wanted them
13:25to see it so that they now have a standard come correct. Right. Come correct. So it's, it's a
13:36beautiful, beautiful, beautiful privilege to be in this space. It's a great honor to be here amongst
13:44y'all as well. It really means a lot. And I'm so grateful that you would even think to have me here.
13:50Listen, just so honored by you. I, I, as I told you, I cried at the end of the holdovers and I'm
13:57like, girl, you're supposed to be serious. You're supposed to be voting. But you gave us Mary
14:03from your soul. Yes. Your body language, your eyes, your unspoken words just spoke volumes.
14:11It's the women in my life. Yeah. Yeah. I see that. I've seen my grandmother go through a day
14:18up, chipper, laughing, joking, all this. And I remember moments in my life in the wee hours of
14:26the morning, if I woke up having to go to the bathroom or want a glass of water and I would
14:30hear my grandma sobbing. Yeah. Because she was in so much arthritic pain and no one knew. And it's,
14:38you know what I mean? People, it's those memories. People don't. And so it's that sense of a woman
14:44which is different. Yeah. And, and I, and we're so glad that you brought all that with you.
14:53That's critical that we don't throw that away. We can't. I have to ask as an actress and a black
15:00woman in today's Hollywood, what grew you the most? And what makes you the most proud when you think
15:07about how far we've come? As I said, I have been waiting for you. What grew you the most? What grew
15:17you here? What grew me? Yeah. I have always had a connection to older generations.
15:30At a young age, I was always told, it's like, yeah, old soul. And so the Ruby D's, the Pearl
15:39Bailey's, the Cicely Tyson's, those were my women. Can you imagine a little girl? That, that was who
15:47I jived with that. I was like, there was something about their unmatchable class, elegance, Felicia
15:57Rashad, Debbie Alley. These type of women are women who I've just so admired. And so in this season,
16:05I'm just trying to hopefully present myself in a way in which would be acceptable and, and, and one that
16:16they would be proud to behold. Because there's something about being classy and timeless.
16:22Yes. Say that. It just lasts forever. It gives you more longevity. The beautiful thing about us is
16:29that it comes through our hair too. We can do it all. Right. So my thing is, if you know you can do
16:35it all, why not set it at a certain precipice of excellence? You can always dip over here, dip over
16:42there. You can do all that. But I, I think that was the biggest thing for me because again, when you're in
16:50certain spaces, they can't refuse you. That's just the interest. You know what I mean? I know you get
16:58it. You know, in certain space, you can let your hair down when you home, be yourself, but in certain
17:04spaces, they just can't refuse you. And so I've always just tried to carry myself authentically with a
17:12level of grace, humility. And I also understand very much. So divine eyes are on you. Be conscious
17:19of the things you say and do, because this is preparing a place for other people. This is a
17:25playing a place for y'all. So I have to be conscious of what I say and do, because I don't want to mess
17:32it up. So that then they're like, you know what? We ain't doing that no more. We messed up. We're not
17:37going to let them in no more. So I'm very specific about how I present and conduct myself. Yeah. Yeah.
17:45I love how you own the seat of responsibility. I love that. And, and I think it's, as you said
17:56backstage, it's, it is a ministry and you are ministering to us. It's a calling. It is a calling.
18:04And, and I love that you know the difference. We talked about not, it's the importance of not
18:10confusing purpose with opportunity. Cause opportunities don't come all the time, but
18:17purpose is the through line. That's currently what I'm going through. Yeah. That's currently the season
18:23I'm in. Yeah. To be completely transparent. Um, because with this nomination, right, the world is
18:29like, what's she going to do next? And, and a lot of people from many different areas
18:34are presenting opportunities. Yeah, there you go. But what I told myself is I said, we're
18:40going to, we're going to sit and we're going to just put it all out on the table and review
18:49because the thing is my ministry and my mission hasn't changed. Right. And even if I win this
18:55award, it won't change. If anything, it'll get fortified stronger. Right. And so with that,
19:03I'm so aware of what this can do. And I want it to be something where it is, as we were saying,
19:17ushering in a transformation for all of us across the board. Right. Yeah.
19:26What's the one thing that you'd like to see happen for black women in this industry that you haven't
19:33seen yet? I don't know if it's that I haven't seen per se, but what I think there can be more of
19:40it's just a sense of knowing. And it may sound minuscule, but there's so many scenarios in which
19:48I've seen in which women truly don't believe they're enough. Yeah. And they've, they've accomplished
19:55a lot of stuff and are still questioning and second guessing. And it's unfortunate because it's like
20:05you're giving it back over to them. Yeah. Take it back my baby. Yeah. Take it back. There's things
20:11that we have. They will never, they just, and they know it. So they're always like, well, what do you
20:19think? Right. Right. Well, what do you think? Well, let me show you. Cause I'm not telling you the
20:24blueprint, but let me show you. Right. And so I just wish, I just wish more women would authentically
20:33walk in their power and understand, don't let these titles fool you. Don't let these other
20:40people's positions fool you. If they didn't need you, you wouldn't be in the room. It's just that
20:48simple. So I just really wish that more women would, you know, if, if you got to give yourself
20:54a pep talk before you walk out the door every five minutes, whatever it takes, but you've got
21:00the juice and you need to know that. And so I think the more that we operate in abundance
21:09and the less in fear and fear mongering or manufacturing that fear, we would, my God,
21:19I don't even know what the, can you imagine what the world would look like? Black women,
21:22black women in particular. That's right. That's right. It would, yeah. Thunder and lightning.
21:33You are owning how you show up in full. I read somewhere that you make look books for your stunning
21:43red carpet appearances. What's been the inspiration behind them? Cause we can't wait to see how you
21:49step out next. Oh my gosh. No, I love, I love, listen, I grew up in, uh, you know, Philly. We,
21:59we, it was, yeah, yeah, Philly, come on. So like, I would sit in there for hours with my mom. It was
22:07like an outing going, we used to get my, we used to get my hair done. Patti LaBelle used to get her hair
22:12done too. And we, it would just be an event like Friday night. We were getting our hair done. It
22:18took all night. We eat and it's a party. So like, I'm used to Essence magazines, Ebony Jet. It was an
22:24event that was my Friday night. And so I always used to rip out hairstyles and clothes and stuff
22:32from the magazines. Yeah. And I used to just like, before it was Pinterest, just put it on this little
22:37folder and like cut stuff out and put it on top of stuff. So I've always been like that. I think
22:42with this, I just wanted to show, uh, elegance mainstream. Yeah. In a black curvy body. Oh,
22:53come on. Does that make sense? Oh, all the way. I wanted to show them we can do it too. Right.
23:00I'm still going to show up authentically mean. You're going to get these hips. The hair is going
23:10to be herring, you know? So it's like, it's, I think when you can, when you know what you're
23:18working with and you know where you're trying to go, strategy is key. Iconography imagery is powerful.
23:27Yeah. It's the same way how, I don't know about y'all. It takes me sometimes 48 hours
23:32just to figure out how I'm going to get my hair braided for the next four weeks as like
23:37my protective style. My mom be like, just pick the style. I'm like, but mom, I can do it
23:41like this. I can do it like that. Right. There's so much creativity that we have at our disposal
23:48that some people don't even, they just want to throw that thing in a messy bun and keep
23:52it moving. Right. So you, you, you, I use this platform as an opportunity to give them
24:01looks, to show them diversity, to show options so that people could connect to it, see themselves
24:08in it, be inspired, whatever, what have you. And also understanding and knowing this forum
24:16tends to be a little more conservative. There is a protocol, if you will. And so it's just
24:23of saying, okay, that doesn't have to limit me. Right. Right. Work the system. Right. That's
24:28all. Work the system. That's all. That's all. Look, there are many artists, women that live
24:38inside of each of us. Why not own them all? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What's your dream project?
24:45What's your dream role? I want to do Leontine Price. Oh, say it again. Yeah. Yes. I'm a
24:50classically trained opera singer. I don't sound it, but I'm a classically trained opera singer.
24:56Yeah. Oh my gosh. And so I really want to tell her story because that woman is so dynamic. Oh
25:03yeah. And such a trailblazer. But also I think it's very fascinating that she is a Southern
25:09woman who could not get a seat at a table at a diner and that would literally get on a private
25:17plane to go sing and dine with kings and queens and marmadukes of foreign lands.
25:26Right. And so I want to show the juxtaposition of that as well as showing black and brown
25:33people in international waters. Right. I love it. Languages will be spoken. Yes. Yes.
25:40There you go. Bonjour. Como tala-vu? I will be speaking languages. Because we do. We do.
25:49So why don't we show it? Why don't we show it? I always say like, it feels like we're almost
25:55like 10 or 20 years behind. I always think of like, what if like an alien or like, you
26:01know what I mean? Like someone from like a remote place watched our television. Is that
26:07a true depiction of what our world is like? I think they'd be confused. And then when
26:13they get here, they'd be like, huh? So my biggest thing is like, let's catch up. Right.
26:18Let's show the real, real. Right. Yeah. Oh my God. So you're teaching all the time. Oh,
26:25thank you. All the time. And I love that you know that. Look, I always say we don't, we
26:30do not have the luxury of going to work. No. We have to go to assignment. Yes. So glad
26:38you took it. Thank you. So glad you took it. Thank you. I hate this clock. It's telling
26:45me, I've got one minute. It's a liar. It's a liar. I hate this clock staring at me. I
26:50hate when they put this clock in front of me. My God. Oh boy. What words of wisdom would
26:58you give to someone who's struggling to find purpose in the film and television as a creative?
27:06Someone who's finding struggle in their purpose. Yeah. Specifically in film and television.
27:11Yeah. I would say think back to when you were motivated. And when you were motivated, what
27:26was the thing that motivated you? Start there. Yeah. Because sometimes, sometimes God will
27:36whisper profound legacies into our ears. Yeah. But we don't, we don't hear it. Right. And
27:47so sometimes it's not that you're unaware of your purpose. It's that he already said it
27:51and you didn't take heed to what he said. Well, over here doing something else. And he's like,
27:57when you're ready to come over here, there's nothing but bounty and abundance. So I actually
28:03think a lot of times it's not that we're not in our purpose is that we've had a moment
28:07of misalignment because I think purpose rings through you consistently. So that's why I would
28:15say, just get back in touch with yourself of those moments. Uh, because, and I said this
28:22for the Saga boys and I really believe this, God would not place the desires upon your heart
28:29for no reason. This may sound small, but one of the most profound moments at a young girl
28:34that I remember was watching Sister Act 2. And when, when Whoopi says, if when you wake
28:42up in the morning, all you think about is singing, then baby girl, you're a singer. It gives me
28:49chills now because it's just that simple. Yeah. Yeah.
28:53He wouldn't place it on your heart. It doesn't have to be complicated. Let God work out the hows
29:01and the whys and the wins. Just stay connected to the source. Yeah. He'll move mountains. He'll
29:09open and close doors that you didn't even know was a door to be closed. And when you just walk,
29:17it's taking that step by step of faith because it's, I don't know how else to say it. It's,
29:25I know it's hard and I'm not trying to belittle it in any way, but I guess what I'm saying is
29:30get back to the essence of you, get back to that self, which usually is your more childlike self.
29:38You know, when you start thinking about like, remember when we were little, there was such
29:41reckless abandonment. We would, you know, put on little concerts and songs. We always had a little
29:47song in our heart and a little dance. You're like, what are you doing? But right as we get older,
29:53we start shunning ourselves from that freedom. Yeah. You don't hear the music. That's a sweet spot.
29:59So a lot of times what I like to do is I like to constantly be in touch with that free younger
30:06self. So for me and my process of how I work, I create a boundary of like, okay, this is the
30:13parameters of the world of the, of the show or the movie within this. I'm a bounce off all these walls.
30:20We bounce, right? So like high fidelity, for example, they said, Devon, this is the parameter.
30:25I said, bet. And I'm a bounce all around. So you better catch it on the camera. Do you know what I
30:30mean? But what was something like that, that was so beautiful was it created and reconnected me
30:35to my sense of reckless abandonment of creativity, which made me feel boundless.
30:43Yes. Oh, that's what you want to feel. Yeah. Boundless. Yeah.
30:48I can't say thank you enough. Thank you so much.
30:58Thank you so much.
30:59Know that we are rooting for you on Sunday. We're going to be bouncing boundaries and all of it.
31:07Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We are glad there are, there is you in the world. Thank you.
31:14Thank you. You all give it up.
31:18You know, smart water found a smart way to do water.
31:35What else can we make smart? What about adding water to your beauty routine?
31:39That'd be smart.
31:40Keep it smart.
31:42All right.
31:44Keep it smart.
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