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Chapter 1: What cookware does Da'Vine Joy Randolph recommend?
Hello, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Good Hang. We are going to talk today to Davine Joy Randolph, and I am really, really excited. I'm such a fan of her work, and we are going to get into it today. We're going to talk about opera. We're going to talk about musical theater.
We're going to talk about how to do a good Boston accent, and we're going to hear how Al Pacino made her cry in a good way. So it's a great convo, and I can't wait to get started. But before we do, we always talk to somebody who knows our guest and has a question to ask our guest. And joining me today is the director of the film Eternity, a film that Dave Mine is in.
And I believe he is calling from... Another country. He's zooming from another country, another time zone. So let's see. It's David Frayn joining us.
Chapter 2: How did Miss Piggy influence Da'Vine's career?
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Hi, how are you?
Hi, so nice to meet you.
So good to meet you.
We're talking to Davine today and, you know, it's fun because Davine, I have to say, is one of, I really don't know very much about her.
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Chapter 3: What was it like working with Al Pacino?
We've never met and we have friends in common and people in common, but I've only kind of watched her as a fan and watched her stuff. Yeah. So I'm interested to get to know her today and to talk about her today. But before we do that, I just wanted to say congratulations on your film. Thank you. I'm always looking for comedy in theaters and in film.
It's been, to be very honest, not always the easiest genre the last decade to get good things out in the world. And comedy is like music. It's so subjective. People have big, strong opinions about it. Um, how, where did you, where were your comedic influences? Like when you started writing and, and directing, um, who were you looking to at the time?
I grew up loving, uh, like Billy Wilder was my idol. So, um, and then like, I mean, 30 Rock and Parks and Rec and those just great iconic kind of TV comedies were, were, where you get such a high joke rate per minute, which I think we don't get very often. So I always look to that.
Chapter 4: What challenges did Da'Vine face during her health journey?
And I think with Eternity, we wanted to make sure it was, like laden down with jokes, just like joke after joke after joke. Because I kind of, I miss really hard comedy. And I think that like segwaying to Devine and my incredible cast, that just goes to say, you can write as good a script as you want, but that's the delivery. That's the actors.
And, and, you know, some, some of the best dramatic actors in the world cannot land a joke. And I think that holy grail.
Well, they better not. I mean, God is fair.
You can't do that.
You can't do it all.
Before we get to Dave, I have one last question and I feel we can always, if it's too personal, of course we can lose it. But you shared a really personal and intense story about your health journey after writing this film that feels like it is completely attached to and tied to the bigger idea that you're writing about.
Yeah. So in the summer, like about six months ago, I had really bad headaches, which I had during the production as well.
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Chapter 5: How does Da'Vine balance comedy and drama in her roles?
Like I would work really hard and then collapse on the weekends. But I got they found an apple sized tumor in my head that had kind of kind of broken through my brain and surrounded my optic nerves and carotid arteries. And like, it was, it was a really surreal, devastating thing to go through.
And at the start, they didn't know if it was going to be kind of operable or, or malignant or, and my, my immediate thoughts were like, I'm not going to get to see eternity released, which is such a vague thing to say, but you know, after so many years, but yeah, You know, I had incredible care and doctors and incredible family and my partner.
And it's, you know, slowly it's gotten better and I've had a great, great outcome from the surgery. And I will say, having gone through that in the last few months or after making a film set in the afterlife, I felt quite contented. I felt I was looking at death with a lot more curiosity than fear. I think I would have been much more afraid had it happened before the film.
And I think just the experience of making the film was so fun and joyous. And I think the
the the things we spoke about with with Devine and the cast and and my passion just like as well like even just not just the work you want to do but the people you want to spend your time with and the people you want to work with and working with good people kind people uh people that share your kind of passions I think that that becomes much more important because you don't really have time for arseholes no I also don't have time for assholes either
Yeah, yeah.
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Chapter 6: What insights does Da'Vine share about her acting process?
Our souls are our souls. They're the worst.
So tell me about working with DayVine.
what how does she like to work because we're talking to her today and she's quite studied I mean she has done a ton of she's like in like a student in voice and acting she has really knows her stuff yeah she's she's she's extraordinary I think um I think what really struck like me firstly I was we were desperate to work with her and I really wanted her for the role and then she won her Oscar and I was really bummed because I thought now I won't get to work with her
But thankfully, she still wanted to do the film. But yeah, she's had the most... incredibly varied career from opera to theatre to then finding acting. And it does feel like she can do anything. I mean, you know, we knew even though The Holdovers is such a dramatic role, we knew she'd be really funny, but like she might be the most naturally gifted comedian I've ever worked with.
She's extraordinary and it does feel effortless to her. Like it doesn't feel like she has, like annoyingly she seems to not have any of the anguish and anxiety that most comedians I know have like she just she just is brilliant and I think she maybe can't kind of slightly know she's brilliant yes yeah she's she's extraordinary and she has she comes to set with
it comes to everything with such a weird level of calm. She's completely unflappable, which I, like she could come, like the set could be on fire and she'll just be like, okay, hey Dave, what's going on? Are we going to evacuate or are we going to shoot?
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Chapter 7: What are Da'Vine's thoughts on the importance of mentorship?
Like she's just extraordinary.
Ooh, I want to talk to her about that. That's really interesting.
like nothing seems to either, either she hides it very well or nothing phases her or, which I find fascinating because I'm phased by most things. Yeah. She's, she is like, she can kind of, she's one of those people that I would put no limits on. I think she can do, I think she can do anything as, as a performer, as an actor, as a comedian. Yeah. It's kind of almost infuriating how good she is.
To be that good of an actor and to also be funny is, it's not nice. It's not nice for the rest of everybody, you know?
It's not fair.
So I would love to ask you, as I have Davine here today, is there a question you think I should ask her, big or small, specific or personal? you know, existential, something that, a story that you think she might want to tell or something that you have yet to know about her that you'd like to have answered?
I mean, I really want to know two things.
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Chapter 8: How does Da'Vine define success in her career?
One is where did the calm she has come from? Because it's so, it's so admirable to me. And I don't think you can be born with that. It's something else. And the other thing is, because she's had such a varied career is, When did she know how funny she was? Like when did she discover she was a comedian? Because it's not like she didn't do sketch comedy really or stand up.
Like when did she know she had that gift? Was that later in life that she was like, oh, I'm really funny. Maybe I'll try that. So they're the two things I'd love to know because I haven't got that out of her.
Great questions, both. I love to ask this to people when I'm on Zoom with them and they have books behind them. Will you just randomly pick one book out from behind you and tell us what the title is?
What the title is? Yeah. Oh, I'm going to pick this one because my sister-in-law wrote it, The Boldness of Betty.
The Boldness of Betty?
It's an amazing series of kind of YA books. They're beautiful.
Always looking for a new book. Thank you for that rec.
Yeah.
And also I just got to check to make sure those books are real.
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