Da’Vine Joy Randolph took home the first Oscar of the night on Sunday, winning best supporting actress for her role in “The Holdovers” as the 96th annual Academy Awards kicked off at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.
Randolph, who swept most of the precursor awards ceremonies leading up the Oscar, was the surest of sure things on Sunday. Still, she broke into tears as Lupita N’Yongo introduced her as a nominee, and the tears flowed more after her costar Paul Giamatti walked her to the stage.
“God is so good. God is so good,” Randolph said as she clutched the golden statuette. “You know, I think I wasn’t supposed to be doing this as a career. I started off as a singer. And my mother said, ‘Go across that street to that theater dept, there’s something for you there.’”
Randolph thanked her mother and others who helped her as her career slowly built to this moment. She made a special point to thank her publicist, saying, “You don’t have a publicist like I have a publicist.”
After a commercial, host Jimmy Kimmel gently teased her for that.
“You know you forgot to mention your publicist’s name,” he said as Randolph beamed from her seat. “I think your publicist needs a publicist.”
Kimmel added that for her role as a grief-stricken cook at a New England boarding school, Randolph had to learn how to smoke. After director Alexander Payne sent her fake cigarettes to practice on. Randolph, Kimmel noted, didn’t think they were real enough, she practiced with actual cigarettes.
“And now she has an Oscar,” Kimmel continued. “You see kids, sometimes smoking is fine.”