Da'Vine Joy Randolph favored to become only the 11th Black actress to win Oscar
Da’Vine Joy Randolph favored to become only the 11th Black actress to win Oscar
In the 95 years that they’ve been handing out Academy Awards, just 10 African-American actresses have won dating back to Hattie McDaniel’s famed supporting actress triumph for “Gone with the Wind” in 1940. Nine of those wins have come in Best Supporting Actress, with Halle Berry being the lone victor in Best Lead Actress for “Monster’s Ball” in 2002. Berry has expressed disappointment that no other Black winner has followed in her footsteps over the past two decades. But the truth is that while it was 51 years between McDaniel’s win and the second for Whoopi Goldberg in “Ghost” in 1991, things have improved significantly over the past few decades for African American actresses and actors in terms of winning at the Oscars in the supporting categories in particular.
This year, there are five opportunities for Black performers to take home an acting trophy spread across three categories: Colman Domingo (“Rustin”) and Jeffrey Wright (“American Fiction”) in lead actor, Sterling K. Brown (“American Fiction”) in supporting actor and Da’Vine Joy Randolph (“The Holdovers”) and Danielle Brooks (“The Color Purple”) in supporting actress. The consensus is that Randolph, who has swept through awards season taking home everything in sight (including the SAG Award and Spirit Award last weekend), easily has the best shot at winding up in the winner’s circle on March 10. It would in fact be the biggest of upsets were that somehow not to happen.
SEE Oscar Experts predict Da’Vine Joy Randolph will serve up Best Supporting Actress victory
If Randolph carts off the trophy, she would become the eighth Black actress to win in the category in 18 years, or nearly half of the time – a pretty decent percentage in anyone’s book. The others were Jennifer Hudson (2007 for “Dreamgirls”), Mo’Nique (2010 for “Precious”), Octavia Spencer (2012 for “The Help”), Lupita Nyong’o (2014 for “12 Years a Slave”), Viola Davis (2017 for “Fences”), Regina King (2019 for “If Beale Street Could Talk”) and Ariana DeBose (2022 for “West Side Story”).
And again, Berry is the only African-American actress ever to win for Best Lead Actress at the Oscars, and the lack of a nominee ensures there will not be a second one this year. However, we did see the first Asian winner last year in Michelle Yeoh for “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” And this time, we could see the first Native American performer winning for lead actress if Lily Gladstone (a co-favorite in the category with Emma Stone for “Poor Things”) takes the gold for “Killers of the Flower Moon.”
No Black actress has yet won two Academy Awards. On the men’s side, two Black actors have: Denzel Washington (1990 for “Glory” and 2002 for “Training Day”) and Mahershala Ali (2017 for “Moonlight” and 2019 for “Green Book”). Since Sidney Poitier won the statuette for “Lilies of the Field” in 1964, there have been 10 Black actors who have won Academy Awards – precisely the same number of Black actresses who have triumphed on the Oscar stage. A total of 20 isn’t a lot for nearly a century of history. But considering that the number stood at a mere three until the 1990s (also including Louis Gossett Jr.’s triumph in 1983 for “An Officer and a Gentleman,” the first Black actor ever to win for supporting), the film academy has proven vastly more diverse and inclusive in its choices over the past three decades-plus..
SEE Da’Vine Joy Randolph (‘The Holdovers’): ‘Boston doesn’t play around, there’s a very specific sound’
This brings us back to Randolph and her widely expected conquest this time. While the presumption is generally that if you win an Oscar you can subsequently write your own career ticket, Randolph isn’t counting on anything. She spoke last week to Marc Maron on his “WTF” podcast about her hopes of expanding her career to star in biopics about forgotten musical icons like Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Leontyne Price (wh0 is 97 and still very much alive).
“So whatever happens with this train you’re on now,” Maron said to Randolph, “coming out of these awards shows you’ll have…more choices.”
“I hope so,” Randolph replied. “I’m gonna be real with you. Being a woman of color, it’s a little different for us even when we’re in these positions of being nominated or even potentially winning. I mean, it’s known, some people you don’t see for a while after, like when Halle Berry won. I’m scared a little bit.”
For the record, Berry didn’t exactly disappear from the scene after winning, starring or co-starring in several “X-Men” movies as well as the James Bond film “Die Another Day” and was most recently in “John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum.” But it certainly didn’t transform her into a megastar, either.
Randolph continued to Maron, “You know, the only thing I’m trying to do – and I thank my team for bearing with me – is, let us do the groundwork so that it doesn’t end up being like that. Let’s not assume that because of these accolades people are gonna be banging down our door. Let’s meet with these producers, directors, studios and be proactive in it. At least, I want to be prepared. I don’t want March 12 to come around and have it be like…”
“You’re done,” Maron adds.
“Yeah, you know what I mean?” Randolph replies.
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