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This interview was originally published on November 21, 2023.
Atthe 2024 Oscars, DaVine Joy Randolph won the award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance inThe Holdovers.
Mary peers at him indifferently and responds, Mm-hmm.
Paul reacts with his signature wryness.
Like I said, sharp kid very insightful, he cracks.
This exchange typifies the essence ofAlexander Paynes latest movie, which has prickly edges but a gentle core.
Marys son recently died after being drafted in the Vietnam War.
Shes heartbroken, but she does not need Pauls pity.
She has a job to do.
At present, that means cooking for the few so-called holdovers begrudgingly stuck on campus during Christmas break.
Mary is her most layered character yet, so we talked about how she unpeeled those layers.
I read that Alexander sent you cartons of cigarettes before filming so you could practice smoking.
Did you use real cigarettes throughout the shoot?
Once I said, Okay, Ill do it, immediately I had cigarettes delivered to the house.
I was like,What is this?They just showed up.
There was a little note, like, Get to it.
Cigarettes are like dogs and children they will upstage you if you dont know how to navigate them.
I am not a smoker at all, so I had to learn how to make it look real.
Some of the fakes are really bad fakes.
The smokes a different color, and its slower than the smoke of a real one.
So for the sake of this, I used a milder cigarette in production.
Its a whole rhythm.
It really helped with defining the character.
It wasDolemite, which I did with Eddie Murphy on Netflix.
He believed that I could possess the essence of this woman, which I was surprised by.
This is the interesting thing, too: You never know whos watching you.
What do you think?
But you let her warmth poke through those emotions.
That was kind of like my guiding post.
And then on top of it, she is actually enjoying herself.
Its very lonely, its very banal.
Shes a very intelligent person, and she meets probably one of the most intelligent people on campus.
They draw things out of each other.They can have very meaningful and beautiful conversations.
That means a lot to her.
And then she cant help it.
Shes a mother, and shes around a young man with a troubled soul.
In many ways, he brings out the most warmth in her without him even knowing it.
Theres a moment that is just a tableau that I find so cute.
Its at the restaurant where theyre all having dinner together.
Thats like a little family-tableau moment.
Paul is seated at the table.
I think hes popping string beans.
Angus is digging his hand in the brownies, and shes like, Dont put your hand in there!
And its the whole conversation of the Christmas party.
Its like a family.
Tell me what those subtleties were.Its a bit brighter and more spread.
I dont know if this will make sense or not.
Im a musician, so its how my brain translates and thinks of it.
Now, the modern Boston accent is poppy, whereas back then, it was smaller and quieter.
Its in the back of your throat.
Sometimes its slurred, and sometimes its an overarticulation.
Its almost how in the 40s, when we think of Katharine Hepburn, its almost British.
In dialect, we call it mid-Atlantic.
Similarly to Boston dialect back in the day, it was a bit more proper.
It gives her more equal weight instead of treating her like a supporting character to the mens story.
With that, too, what I loved about it is the details that some people may miss.
I dont want to face that.
Even when shes about to get out of the car, she lingers a little bit.
She doesnt jump out of the car like, Okay, bye.
Shes like, Are you gonna be okay?
She dont know how this visit is gonna go.
The idea that shes got to look at her sister and see that her sister is pregnant is painful.
New life coming through is a reminder of her loss.
Its just so rich within the text.
She needs Angus to hold her hand as she ascends up those steps to her sisters.
When we shot that, I was always told, Dont assume your mic is not on.
So as we went up the steps, I said to him, Now behave yourself.
Dont do anything slick.
Dont stress that man out.
That wasnt in the script?No.
We were told the mics were always hot, and there were cameras everywhere.
After wondering if maybe their relationship is rocky, we see her at her happiest.Thank you for noticing that.
I imagined that once her sister sees that she brought that box her sister knows whats in that box.
Her sons baby clothes.Thats huge.
Thats the olive branch, if you will.
She sees it and her heart drops.
It means, I dont know how to do this, but Im trying.
We definitely were eating when we had Christmas dinner.
It was really sweet because the food specialists worked on the HBO Julia Child series.
I love to cook, and we were just geeking out, so that was fun for me.
Other times, it was just a carrot here or there.
But it was all real food: soups, porridge, roasted chicken.
Oh, I hope yall like how that toast looked, because that hangover toast was so delicious.
It was really good butter and fresh preserves from a local farmer.
Thats why I held it up.
I wanted you to be able to see the butter-to-jelly ratio.
It was so good!
it’s possible for you to tell by somebodys knife skills or how they handle the food.
Its important to me that you saw this lady was not the help.
This is her career.
Thats not in the recipe.
Youre doing too much.
I love that because it gives her legitimacy.
She knows what shes doing.
WithThe Idol, you talked about treating the slickness of Destinys wardrobe as a sort of armor.
How do you position Marys wardrobe?
Unless you have to not be because of the script, baby girl is always going to look good.
Im a fashion girl.
We did so much research.
Even when I do red carpets, I do a lot of research.
Ill pull photos and put together a mood board.
Costume designer Wendy Chuck was so warm and lovely.
We were seeking out vintage fabrics, and most of my clothes were custom-made for me.
I dont want to just wear an apron.
Alexander really wanted an apron.
I said, Can you compromise with me?
Its really important to me that she has a uniform.
This is a job.
She takes pride in this.
That uniform is clean and crisp.
She dry-cleans it or hand-cleans it herself.
She presses it, she starches it, she lays it out the night before.
And then we can put a little apron on top of that to make it softer.
That was based off of Leah Chase.
We were pulling vintage textiles and corduroy.
It was the opposite ofThe Idol: You wanted to give her a hug.
Which is not what anyone felt about Destiny.Right.
And thats another thing: my nails.
I took my nails off, and it was my natural nails.
Alexander was like, No, maam.
I was like, What about active length?
He said okay, but he would check on my nails.
Hed say, Theyre getting a little long.
Get that file out.
Thats not me, but I had to succumb to who she was.
I wanted sensory things, fuzzy things, texture.
For the budget that she has, homegirl was put together.
Its not that she has many clothes, but the ones she has, she takes great pride in.
Its not like my closet, where everything is all over the place.
Its purposeful, and she has a look for every event needed no more and no less.
I assume people are in your ear about Oscar buzz and a potentially monthslong campaign.
To be honest with you, I genuinely leave it at that.
But I honor and respect the earnestness.
Listen, people dont have to say that.
And for that, I honor that and Im so grateful.
