Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, and thanks so much for joining me today.
Speaker 2: It's a very special, exciting day because this episode kicks
Speaker 2: off the second season of Table for Two. We're thrilled
Speaker 2: to be getting back into the swing of things at
Speaker 2: my favorite joint in Hollywood, the Tower Bar.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, Hi, Hi sweet Hi.
Speaker 2: You might notice that the room is buzzing a bit
Speaker 2: more than usual, and I think it's because everyone knows
Speaker 2: we're having lunch with today's guest. She's a brilliant actress
Speaker 2: who has acted on Broadway, television and in many incredible films.
Speaker 2: Her latest movie, The Holdovers, has earned her a Golden
Speaker 2: Globe Award, a Critics Choice, a BAFTA, and a Screen
Speaker 2: Actors Guild Award.
Speaker 1: To top it off, she's.
Speaker 2: Been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Speaker 4: If I could get a saucer, water and Arnold Palmer,
Speaker 4: that'd be perfect.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 1: That's right. Today we're having lunch with the one and
Speaker 1: only enjoy Randolph.
Speaker 2: So pull up a chair, grab a glass of rose,
Speaker 2: and join us for the first episode of season two.
Speaker 2: I'm Bruce Bossi and this is my podcast, Table for two.
Speaker 2: You know what's really amazing about you is And I
Speaker 2: had no idea your parents took a job.
Speaker 1: You grew up in Hershey and they were house parents,
Speaker 1: is there.
Speaker 3: Which is interesting.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So I grew up in Philadelphia and then in eighth grade,
Speaker 4: my parents got a When I was in Philadelphia, I
Speaker 4: went to prep schools. My mother in particular, because my
Speaker 4: mother is an educator, they made sacrifices so that I
Speaker 4: could go to private schools and prep schools my entire education.
Speaker 4: But I was a what do they call it a
Speaker 4: day so I would get bused from the inner city
Speaker 4: and go to these like beautiful suburbs and have this
Speaker 4: whole other life and come back. I remember coming back
Speaker 4: and the first time I had sushi.
Speaker 3: At school and just being like, well, what is this?
Speaker 3: I love it?
Speaker 4: And I remember my parents sat me down and they said,
Speaker 4: you have to promise us, if you're going to have
Speaker 4: these opportunities, that when you come back home, you introduce
Speaker 4: us to it, you introduce your friends to it, so
Speaker 4: that this world is not just your own. Bring back
Speaker 4: what you learn and share, right. They their parents were
Speaker 4: adamant about We're going to still live in the inner city,
Speaker 4: but we're going to go have that experience and then
Speaker 4: you bring back what you've learned and you bring that
Speaker 4: back into your community. And that's something that I'm still
Speaker 4: aimed to do right and try very hard to do.
Speaker 3: So that was up.
Speaker 4: Until eighth grade, and then we moved to Hershie because
Speaker 4: there's a very big boarding school there. The difference with
Speaker 4: that boarding school is that at the time we're there,
Speaker 4: it could have changed. I'm not sure, but the mission
Speaker 4: was that it was it first turned off that Milton Hershey,
Speaker 4: the man who made the chocolate bar, his wife couldn't
Speaker 4: have kids, and so they created an orphanage and it
Speaker 4: was a boy's only orphanage. Then it was boys and girls,
Speaker 4: and then that orphanage then turned into a school.
Speaker 3: So where I think, and I don't know how all
Speaker 3: schools are ran of these kind of like boarding.
Speaker 4: Schools, but this is a boarding school. At that time,
Speaker 4: there was a bit more for at risk youth, so
Speaker 4: less of like affluent families dropping their kids off. It
Speaker 4: was more of at risk youth giving them an opportunity.
Speaker 4: Some how, I had opportunity to.
Speaker 3: Go to these places. And so my.
Speaker 4: Parents were house parents are like dorm parents, and so
Speaker 4: we had this big house and we had like ten
Speaker 4: to twelve kids.
Speaker 1: That is kind of crazy.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so I know, not only going to school in
Speaker 4: these environments and then living in this environment all throughout
Speaker 4: high school. So yeah, I definitely think that had an
Speaker 4: influence on it, and how my parents had to be
Speaker 4: parents to all of us, especially because it's you know
Speaker 4: what I mean, So some people don't have parents in
Speaker 4: their life. For some people are raised by their grandparents
Speaker 4: or you know what I mean, whatever their situation is.
Speaker 3: And so it's always remember how.
Speaker 4: When some kids got left for the holidays or you know,
Speaker 4: parents couldn't take them or whatever for whatever reason, how
Speaker 4: my parents would try to make it a little extra
Speaker 4: special or you know, I've experienced holdovers before my mom
Speaker 4: as a teacher, so that never stopped.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean.
Speaker 4: And their house parents, so it's not like a dorm
Speaker 4: person in a college sense, where like they only step
Speaker 4: in when there's a problem.
Speaker 3: They're in middle school, high school, they're very hands on.
Speaker 1: The develop Yeah, exactly, big response.
Speaker 3: They were parents to all of them. Yeah, and I
Speaker 3: had to share my parents with them. Wow.
Speaker 2: I mean, you go to Temple, you get a Bachelor
Speaker 2: of Arts, You go to Yale, you get an MFA.
Speaker 1: Like that's like a big deal, did you? Like you know,
Speaker 1: I know that you.
Speaker 2: Pursued a career as an opera singer and a singer,
Speaker 2: and like, which is something you know?
Speaker 1: I just no idea.
Speaker 2: And then you sort of pivot when you realize, oh,
Speaker 2: the acting bug, the acting that's in you you want
Speaker 2: to pursue.
Speaker 3: No, no, that's actually not how it happened.
Speaker 4: So I've always loved music, but growing up I had
Speaker 4: a lot of interests. So my parents were kind of like,
Speaker 4: we're cool with what. I was always told, We're cool
Speaker 4: whatever you want to do, but whatever you do, get
Speaker 4: the best education in Canada and be very good at it, right.
Speaker 4: And so education and competitiveness is in my blood, right,
Speaker 4: It's just it is what it is.
Speaker 3: And so when growing up, when people.
Speaker 4: Were like, oh I want to be a this a
Speaker 4: that I jingled for very like, very very late, I
Speaker 4: did not know really what I wanted to be. No
Speaker 4: high school, I didn't even know. I didn't know what
Speaker 4: my career path was going to be. And I remember
Speaker 4: in high school there was a girl who came from
Speaker 4: Canada a new student, and she was talking about this
Speaker 4: performing art school that she went to and I just
Speaker 4: was like, this sounds amazing of what she's speaking of.
Speaker 3: So I blindly auditioned for it.
Speaker 4: I got there and it was all classically based, like
Speaker 4: they had jazz.
Speaker 3: It mused instrumental, but not like a jazz vocal.
Speaker 4: And I grew up a more like jazz and R
Speaker 4: and B and soul and that kind of thing right
Speaker 4: with Philadelphia, and like the Philly was sound yeah, and
Speaker 4: so that was like a shock to me. I was
Speaker 4: just digging around because I was like, I don't know
Speaker 4: what this is, so I was like faking it. And
Speaker 4: so then we auditioned for an opera and I ended
Speaker 4: up getting one of the leads and I was like,
Speaker 4: this doesn't even make sense. Wow, So this is a
Speaker 4: pipe yeah, it's I knew I had singing, but.
Speaker 1: Question mark right.
Speaker 4: And so this was in Traverse City. This is like
Speaker 4: two three hours away from Detroit.
Speaker 3: But where this.
Speaker 4: Magical beautiful place is. It's like on a lake and
Speaker 4: all these pine trees. So there's like but we're like
Speaker 4: in cabins, right, So we're roughing out in cabins and
Speaker 4: I got sick due to like the mold and stuff.
Speaker 3: So I ended up completely losing my voice.
Speaker 4: Okay, So I'm out of performing our school with no
Speaker 4: voice as one of the leads. But I will never
Speaker 4: forget that experience because I feel like it was a
Speaker 4: very spiritual, soulful experience in which, in that moment I
Speaker 4: was a junior in high school, I was understanding what
Speaker 4: it meant to be an artist and to begin to
Speaker 4: think of process. And I never had thought of stuff
Speaker 4: like that before because I couldn't speak, so my inner
Speaker 4: voice was the loudest voice.
Speaker 3: I could hear.
Speaker 4: And everyone around me is having a good time and
Speaker 4: expressing themselves creatively and I can't. So it's like I
Speaker 4: had to rely on other senses, and I was so
Speaker 4: internal that it allowed me to begin to I think
Speaker 4: that truly was the place of me birthing.
Speaker 3: Myself as an artist.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 3: And so.
Speaker 4: Magically I get my voice back the day of the show.
Speaker 4: It's weird, It's really it doesn't make sense. My parents
Speaker 4: were there. I'm like, why are you coming? I don't
Speaker 4: even have a voice. My voice comes back.
Speaker 1: It magical, So they not replaced you like somebody.
Speaker 4: Understudy one of the sweetest women girls in the world,
Speaker 4: and literally the teacher because they made me come to
Speaker 4: all the rehearsals.
Speaker 3: I was like, this is brutal. Why are you doing
Speaker 3: this to me?
Speaker 4: They made me come to rehearsals and I never get
Speaker 4: the teachers like just lightly part your lips and breathe
Speaker 4: as everyone's singing around you. Because and this happened when
Speaker 4: I went to a Barbara Streiss concert and I said
Speaker 4: in like the tenth row, and I did it again,
Speaker 4: like as an adult, our vocal chords vibrate the sound
Speaker 4: we're hearing. So that's like, have you ever gone to
Speaker 4: like a rock concert or like where someone's like screaming
Speaker 4: and when you go home you either literally have a
Speaker 4: sore throat or you're like you just feel like right,
Speaker 4: it's because our vocal cords are vibrating to match that.
Speaker 4: When I went to the Badge concert, I was in
Speaker 4: beautiful voice. I was like, oh, she has beautiful forbes
Speaker 4: because my vocal chorus feel yummy, right and so extinctively,
Speaker 4: I guess my body the anatomy I was rehearsing though
Speaker 4: I was not phonating, and so I was able.
Speaker 5: To do and it was healing. It was healing, yeah,
Speaker 5: and to wait, so now it's getting very close to
Speaker 5: the night that you're gonna have this performance. Do you
Speaker 5: all of a sudden started saying.
Speaker 3: Why did you? Was the day of the morning they say.
Speaker 4: The teacher was like, we're going to do vocal warm up,
Speaker 4: and I was like, why, I'm not performing tonight. And
Speaker 4: we started doing vocal warm up and it was like
Speaker 4: the first time that I was starting to phone it.
Speaker 3: This is a crazy story. And I literally am like.
Speaker 4: Oh my god, I'm going up the register and I'm
Speaker 4: going higher and higher and I never get I asked
Speaker 4: the girl.
Speaker 3: She was in the room with me.
Speaker 4: I could not believe this understudy was in the room
Speaker 4: and I was looking at her and I'm crying and
Speaker 4: I'm like, I'm so sorry because I'm.
Speaker 3: Going and she was so sweet.
Speaker 4: I was like, just let I said, let me go
Speaker 4: on tonight because my family is here.
Speaker 3: You can do the rest of the shows. Just give me.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, she's been doing it the whole time. I'm
Speaker 3: not gonna sit. But I was like, just give me
Speaker 3: this one. It was opening up, but just give me
Speaker 3: this one. Parents are here. We could do the rest, right.
Speaker 3: So at this one, I'm now like schools are coming.
Speaker 3: All the stuff Julliarden. You know Manhattan's College, you know the
Speaker 3: School of Music. Everyone's there.
Speaker 4: So I was like, okay, I guess I'm an opera singer.
Speaker 4: Went to Temple for the teacher. Opera to me was
Speaker 4: like what Shakespeare is to some people, right, you gotta
Speaker 4: imagine I'm from inner city Philadelphia.
Speaker 3: I wanted you know how when you sometimes can watch
Speaker 3: Shakespeare and it's literally like a foreign like you don't
Speaker 3: know what that person is.
Speaker 1: It takes a while to get the ears you even
Speaker 1: understand that.
Speaker 4: My teacher says, that's when they're doing it for themselves,
Speaker 4: when you're doing it for the service of the work.
Speaker 3: Because think about it, it's just.
Speaker 4: Old English, yes, And when people were watching Shakespeare it
Speaker 4: was in the bottom it was actually like very broad
Speaker 4: comedy and drama that even uneducated people could understand and right,
Speaker 4: but when we sometimes put this high falutin thing on it,
Speaker 4: same thing for opera.
Speaker 3: The only difference is quite literally in another language.
Speaker 4: So I was like, I want to make sure my
Speaker 4: reasoning for wanting coaching, and guess what we're gonna call
Speaker 4: it was so that my family when they came could
Speaker 4: understand and other inner city people who came where tip
Speaker 4: was the city school could understand what was happening, which
Speaker 4: to me they connected.
Speaker 2: Brings me back to when your parents said, no matter
Speaker 2: what you learn, you write, that's right party exactly.
Speaker 4: Somehow they thought I was in the mix as someone
Speaker 4: that was now trying to leave the music department to
Speaker 4: go to the theater department.
Speaker 3: Was not the case.
Speaker 4: I just wanted to make it make sense for the
Speaker 4: viewer because I was very much so sold at this
Speaker 4: point on being an opera singer. But my teacher told me,
Speaker 4: I can go travel the world, eat pasta, eat really
Speaker 4: good food, men are gon a dote with me. I
Speaker 4: can wear gowns, furs, lots of money. I was like,
Speaker 4: this is me, this is me?
Speaker 3: Are you kidding? This is me?
Speaker 4: And so I was very much into this. I was this,
Speaker 4: are you going to tell me no griping with what?
Speaker 3: Please me?
Speaker 4: So they got upset and they essentially flunked me up.
Speaker 4: Really m junior year in conservatories it is really like
Speaker 4: your senior year. It's like your big all culminating, almost
Speaker 4: like your senior thesis.
Speaker 3: That happens in your junior year.
Speaker 4: You do an aria and every language with every like
Speaker 4: the romance linguage.
Speaker 3: So I don't know Germans on the romance things, but.
Speaker 4: German English, Uh, Spanish, Allian, French. And then you may
Speaker 4: do like one other English or like another for free
Speaker 4: you can throw in there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but it's like six seven pieces they flung to me.
Speaker 3: No way had a full ride.
Speaker 2: Yeah, welcome back to Table for two. Today we're having
Speaker 2: lunch with Dave and Joy Randolph and talking about her
Speaker 2: path to acting. Before the break, she was telling us
Speaker 2: about leaving the music program at Temple University unexpectedly, So
Speaker 2: how did she make the pivot to the stage?
Speaker 3: So why what's happening? Right?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 4: It was if it was like the store is closed, right,
Speaker 4: like the great is coming down or up rather for me?
Speaker 4: And I was like, and it was this thing of
Speaker 4: this inner monologue of this isn't about you.
Speaker 3: Don't let this penetrate you.
Speaker 4: This isn't your story, right, so don't even attach yourself
Speaker 4: to it. Right, So this is happening and they're saying this,
Speaker 4: and there's just like there was a disassociation.
Speaker 3: I think a healthy one.
Speaker 4: And I called my mother and I'm I'm blistened. This
Speaker 4: is my junior year.
Speaker 3: You're like senior year is.
Speaker 4: Just about what opera house or what symphony am I
Speaker 4: gonna be connected to?
Speaker 3: That's all.
Speaker 4: The senior year is putting you at what what house
Speaker 4: are you going to be at?
Speaker 3: And so my mom, cool as.
Speaker 4: A cucumber, said, I'm gonna give you the weekend to,
Speaker 4: you know, feel everything you're feeling, and then on Monday,
Speaker 4: you're gonna go across the street and you're going to
Speaker 4: apply and see if your credits can transfer over into
Speaker 4: the theater department. I will never forget I was on
Speaker 4: the street. I had a tantrum in the middle. I'm
Speaker 4: not an actor.
Speaker 3: I don't want to losing it. My mom was like,
Speaker 3: do you trust me?
Speaker 4: I'm telling you see if the credits can transfer.
Speaker 3: She said. I looked online.
Speaker 4: It seems like most of your credits can transfer. You're
Speaker 4: gonna still graduate on time. Go across the street and
Speaker 4: apply to the acting department. I came there dragging my
Speaker 4: you know, our little kid just drags their backpack as
Speaker 4: a and I'm.
Speaker 3: Literally like, here's my actor. She's like, there are you short?
Speaker 4: Like no ants come here later like a four year old,
Speaker 4: like well, you can't even literally like I'm gonna let
Speaker 4: it and she was like okay. Well, and so I
Speaker 4: was there for a year and I'm so grateful because
Speaker 4: they saw something in me. And I was only there
Speaker 4: for a couple of months before December approached that next
Speaker 4: year and I had to apply. Well, if you wanted to,
Speaker 4: that would be the time that you applied for graduate school.
Speaker 4: And remember we came back from Christmas break and the
Speaker 4: Dan asked me to come into his office and he
Speaker 4: had four applications on his desk. He said, I just
Speaker 4: need you to sign right here. I said, what is this?
Speaker 4: And he was like, you're applying for graduate school?
Speaker 3: Now? Mind you.
Speaker 4: I'm literally in just survival mode of like diploma, nothing
Speaker 4: else done. And I was like, no, sir. He goes, well,
Speaker 4: what else are you going to do when you graduate?
Speaker 4: I was like, well, I don't know, but I love
Speaker 4: to say. He goes, well, that's you always will have that.
Speaker 4: But you have a gift here, and I just want
Speaker 4: you to explore it. You gotta taste. I mean, moms, nothing,
Speaker 4: I knew nothing of it. But then I'm looking at
Speaker 4: these and I'm like, yale n yu.
Speaker 3: What like the top one's top ones? I don't even
Speaker 3: know what acting is really yet.
Speaker 4: And Yale was my first one and.
Speaker 1: I just went just one interviewed, did an audience.
Speaker 4: Yes, and all these kids are crying and throwing up
Speaker 4: in the corner, and I'm like, what is this?
Speaker 3: This is why I don't like these actors. They're weird and
Speaker 3: too you know what I mean, Like.
Speaker 4: Musicians are a lot, but Jesus, you're actually like a
Speaker 4: tenors too much. And I had one of my first
Speaker 4: interviews and it was Ron van Lutz, who's a god.
Speaker 4: I don't know who this man is. And he's like,
Speaker 4: do you know where you're at? And I was like,
Speaker 4: oh my god, did I come to the wrong school?
Speaker 4: Because they were like, pa, you know.
Speaker 3: I was like, I came to the wrong school. He cause, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 3: You're at the right place. But do you know where
Speaker 3: you're at? I said.
Speaker 4: They told me it was the Yell School dramaser and
Speaker 4: he was like, go downstairs and just walk the hallway
Speaker 4: and come back. So I walked downstairs to their cabaret
Speaker 4: and on the walls it's pictures of students from the
Speaker 4: past as students. So I'm seeing Meryl Street in the boat,
Speaker 4: I'm seeing Paul Giamatti with a clown nose on Leev Schreibern.
Speaker 4: I'm seeing Angela Bassett with Lauren Fishburn and in August
Speaker 4: Wilson productive like, what is this place?
Speaker 3: Yea, and I come back upstairs and I was like, okay, cool,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean?
Speaker 4: He I was like, I went downstairs, I saw it,
Speaker 4: and he was like, you're different.
Speaker 3: There's not one like you.
Speaker 4: So this is gonna be difficult for you, this path
Speaker 4: of being an actor.
Speaker 3: And he was like al Pacino, de Niro, a MARYL.
Speaker 4: Street, there was no them before them, he says, So
Speaker 4: it's going to be a hard and lonely road because
Speaker 4: you won't necessarily have a blueprint or something too sure,
Speaker 4: you're gonna we're gonna make this up as we go.
Speaker 4: And he was like, but if you trust me, I
Speaker 4: will give you everything you need.
Speaker 2: At this point, like people are crying in the hallways,
Speaker 2: he's saying, you're in.
Speaker 1: Well not you're in.
Speaker 4: But I just know as an actor, this is going
Speaker 4: to be a long, hard road, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: But with the right people, you can get what you need.
Speaker 4: And he said too of like, you know, don't compare
Speaker 4: yourself because you lose every time. Just don't even do that,
Speaker 4: I said to him. When I said to other schools,
Speaker 4: he was the first.
Speaker 3: One, right.
Speaker 4: So I still had other schools I had to audition for,
Speaker 4: and when I asked all of them, because you all
Speaker 4: have an interview and they say like, what do you
Speaker 4: what would you like from this program? And I've said
Speaker 4: to everyone, I want to have the skill set and
Speaker 4: toolbox to be able to play any character ever written.
Speaker 3: No matter what I look like. Every single school No,
Speaker 3: well no.
Speaker 4: Because you're this where that Yale was the only school
Speaker 4: that was like But of course that is exactly what
Speaker 4: our curriculum is based off of. So I knew deep
Speaker 4: down just from that answer alone, this is where I
Speaker 4: want to go.
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us on table for two.
Speaker 2: Last year, Divine starting the critically acclaimed movie The Holdovers
Speaker 2: as Mary Lamb, the head cook at a New England
Speaker 2: prep school. I adored her performance and want to know
Speaker 2: all about how she prepared for the role and what
Speaker 2: it was life working with director Alexander Payne.
Speaker 1: So congratulations on The Holdovers.
Speaker 2: Thank you and if you haven't seen it, you gotta
Speaker 2: see this movie. And Devine's been nominated for Best Supporting
Speaker 2: Actress for the Academy Awards.
Speaker 1: Congratulations on the Golden.
Speaker 2: Globe, Like, holy Canoli, it's a big deal. Tell me
Speaker 2: about the story. What resident and you know you're working
Speaker 2: with Alexander Payne and you know, yeah, and what resonated
Speaker 2: with Mary Lamb and what kind of.
Speaker 1: How did you relate to her?
Speaker 4: The script came with such a level of detail and
Speaker 4: authenticity that I usually.
Speaker 3: That like, I don't know how to say it.
Speaker 4: It's like, you know, how you have your standard of
Speaker 4: doing something, whether it's cleaning. Let's let you have your
Speaker 4: standard of cleaning cleaning person comes over. Let's say your
Speaker 4: friends come over, stay in the weekend, and the thing
Speaker 4: is like cool, do whatever you want.
Speaker 3: I'm not going to charge you. Just clean up after yourself.
Speaker 4: They clean different than you clean right, and you other
Speaker 4: than go behind them and cleaning. That's kind of how
Speaker 4: it's been for acting, really right that like script wise
Speaker 4: and the details of the character, it wasn't at the
Speaker 4: level that I had hoped it to be prior, so
Speaker 4: a lot of times I would have to go then
Speaker 4: not behind them, but kind of and be like great,
Speaker 4: So if you're willing, I would love to collaborate and
Speaker 4: bringing in these details and bringing in these nuances. Can
Speaker 4: you give me an example, because a lot of times
Speaker 4: it comes down to the script and there's certain things
Speaker 4: a lot of times that are generalized that's like, well,
Speaker 4: let's pontificate on that, like.
Speaker 3: What do you mean?
Speaker 4: Or or you have her doing this, so is that
Speaker 4: what you mean to happen? It feels like there's a
Speaker 4: missing step, or you have this happening for her, but
Speaker 4: nowhere have you explained her history her do you know
Speaker 4: what I mean? Like oftentimes I'll deal with like, especially
Speaker 4: in TV, she's kind of just there, yeah, to the
Speaker 4: service of others, obviously the lead. And so what was
Speaker 4: so exciting for me for this script that when I
Speaker 4: read it, I was like, Oh, they've already done.
Speaker 3: A really good portion of this.
Speaker 4: So that immediately got my attention and I was like, Aha, okay,
Speaker 4: this is different in regards to the caliber and quality.
Speaker 3: Of the script. Usually I'm having to fill in the blanks.
Speaker 3: I say, a lot of the blanks are filled in.
Speaker 4: And what was really cool when I I spoke with
Speaker 4: when Alex had being called me initially to have the
Speaker 4: director's meeting, I wanted I didn't talk too much, and
Speaker 4: I wanted to just get an understanding of his sensibility
Speaker 4: in regards to storytelling overall and in particular to this project,
Speaker 4: and even more so with this woman. And what I
Speaker 4: thought that was so amazing is that someone who is
Speaker 4: so well decorated and lauded and like and it's like
Speaker 4: a Hollywood dollar.
Speaker 3: I don't know what you call it, the male version,
Speaker 3: but he's very revered and loved within this industry. There
Speaker 3: was no ego. There was a willingness to understand and learn.
Speaker 4: He was very clear of like, you know, there are
Speaker 4: some things culturally that I'm not going to know about.
Speaker 4: I'm leaning on you to help me with that. Or
Speaker 4: I've seen this before, and I think this would be
Speaker 4: really a beautiful moment to show this detail. For example,
Speaker 4: rollers and like some of the clothes, so when she's
Speaker 4: watching the New and she's like in her little like
Speaker 4: nightgown whatever, overcoat, nightcoat, whatever you call it, purple. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I think initially he wanted her to predominantly be wearing
Speaker 4: stuff like that at all times. And I was like, no,
Speaker 4: she's still working, even though it's a holiday, she's still working.
Speaker 4: And this is a woman who takes pride Like I
Speaker 4: wanted it to look like she has. She may not
Speaker 4: have much, she has a beautifully well curated closet. You know,
Speaker 4: you have some friends where it's like they're more of
Speaker 4: like a minimalist with clothing, but everything they put on
Speaker 4: us ad. I wanted it to be like that, you
Speaker 4: know what I mean, Like she doesn't have a lot,
Speaker 4: but you better believe she started all through.
Speaker 3: Everything is well put together. She takes great.
Speaker 2: Care of her Yeah, and you see that when you
Speaker 2: open up and then you know you end up also
Speaker 2: on your son's uniform.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but you really see. Yeah, it's like the suit.
Speaker 4: Is starch, yes, and she's always touching things. She's a
Speaker 4: very tactile person. Her nails are very like, you know,
Speaker 4: manicured and just very put together. Her little jewelry like
Speaker 4: everything has a place and a purpose.
Speaker 3: And similar with the rollers. He was like, oh, I
Speaker 3: would love it. She's like rocking rollers. I was like, cool.
Speaker 3: But in the privacy of her room, right, because she's working.
Speaker 4: Also, this is a black woman in the predominantly all
Speaker 4: white environment. There's a certain level in which she's never
Speaker 4: gonna and that's part of who she is. She's never
Speaker 4: gonna literally and figuratively let her hair all the way down.
Speaker 3: She's never right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and so but that was cool because I was like, oh,
Speaker 4: I don't know, you know, he is who he is,
Speaker 4: and I mean literally the utmost respect that sometimes you're
Speaker 4: gonna have a little bit of pushback, and there wasn't any.
Speaker 2: It's interesting because now that you share that, that scene
Speaker 2: now takes on something, you know. I think I felt
Speaker 2: it were when the intimacy of him coming into your
Speaker 2: space and you're sitting on the couch and you have
Speaker 2: the rollers and you're watching the dating the Newly game, Yes,
Speaker 2: and you understand that you're now in Mary's.
Speaker 4: Like very into this space, and it's different than what
Speaker 4: you've seen Mary when she's not only.
Speaker 2: In the kitchen, out of the kitchen, in her uniformer,
Speaker 2: in her exact street.
Speaker 3: There's a coldness.
Speaker 4: When she's in the kitchen, everything still and industrial and
Speaker 4: like sterile to be clean for those purposes. Even in
Speaker 4: the when they're like walking throughout the halls of the school,
Speaker 4: there's a coldness. There's a warmth when she's in her space,
Speaker 4: when she's in her sister's space, and when she's in
Speaker 4: the living room. I wanted to bring this sense even
Speaker 4: with the clothing of you wanted I wanted people to
Speaker 4: want to touch her or no instinctively upon scene, what
Speaker 4: that fabric is and what it feels like. I want
Speaker 4: it to be a sensory experience in that science bingo.
Speaker 1: I mean it really is.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 2: I'm even you know, picturing the dinner when you're invited
Speaker 2: to have the dinner, like just to hear everything about.
Speaker 3: It is like, that's like her Sunday's best.
Speaker 4: Yes, right, that dress shows up at a funeral, at
Speaker 4: a wedding, at a graduation, any kind of celebration, right,
Speaker 4: that's her best.
Speaker 2: And when you go visit your sister and really, if
Speaker 2: you're you gotta see this movie people you got to
Speaker 2: see when you go and you're driving there and now
Speaker 2: the characters at this point have really created it's a
Speaker 2: very complicated relationships.
Speaker 1: It's a very it's a very heartfelt.
Speaker 2: These are complicated people who have been pain in your life.
Speaker 1: And you know you're being driven by Paul.
Speaker 2: They're going to drop you off when they go to Boston,
Speaker 2: and you know you're and the way you present there,
Speaker 2: you know, and it's the format versus it's also very
Speaker 2: important in the relationship you have with Paul's character in
Speaker 2: the young man's character, the young man forgetting his name
Speaker 2: dominic sss very good, very talented.
Speaker 1: Very talented, I mean Alexander really yeah.
Speaker 4: I think that's one of those many strong suits as
Speaker 4: well casting and bringing people together. I think a lot
Speaker 4: that we looked out on is we genuinely did and
Speaker 4: do have amazing chemistry together, especially me and Paul. There's
Speaker 4: something that was just instinctually there, I think, in regardless
Speaker 4: to the technical elements in regards to share acting and
Speaker 4: by us both being under the same curriculum, but there's
Speaker 4: just something kindred about us that showed up. And so
Speaker 4: a lot of times we did you know, sometimes we
Speaker 4: can do a scene, especially as you're geting to know
Speaker 4: the person, there's a dialogue and there's a talking of
Speaker 4: what do we want to create and dadada, and we
Speaker 4: never did really.
Speaker 3: We just was, you know, we would do.
Speaker 4: We did two to three weeks of tablework, and that
Speaker 4: was weird because people have asked like, oh, it's improv
Speaker 4: and the answer is yes and no. We did two
Speaker 4: to three weeks of rehearsal and tablework, which is unheard
Speaker 4: of and we use that time. But we all were
Speaker 4: there together all the actors, right, David who is the
Speaker 4: writer as well as the director, and we went through
Speaker 4: the whole.
Speaker 3: Script scene by scene, and then it was like does
Speaker 3: this make sense? Do we like this?
Speaker 4: But we used that time to go through it scene
Speaker 4: by scene and then at the end of that we've
Speaker 4: seen Evenson say okay, great, so does this seem real?
Speaker 4: Does this make sense? Is there anything we should take away?
Speaker 4: Anything we should add?
Speaker 3: Because for me it happened quick.
Speaker 4: He offered it to me basically like Thanksgiving weekend, okay,
Speaker 4: and then we started filming January.
Speaker 3: First, so I had a lot to do in a
Speaker 3: little bit of time.
Speaker 4: Paul had known about it for a while, and Dominic
Speaker 4: had gone through I think you said, like eight auditions
Speaker 4: and callbacks, so he had been in the whole process.
Speaker 3: It was new for me. So I had a lot
Speaker 3: to do in a little bit of time of smoking the.
Speaker 4: Dialect, not really brushing up on my cooking, but cooking
Speaker 4: like just getting into the world. Working with Wendy Chuck,
Speaker 4: who's the amazing costume designer, we pulled all venture things
Speaker 4: and if we didn't, we couldn't get the vintage thinger.
Speaker 4: You know, Ventace is fragile, so certain things putting on
Speaker 4: at a rip or something like that. We then source
Speaker 4: vintage fabric and make custom stuff back. So it was
Speaker 4: really again about like the text.
Speaker 2: Tie, I mean you feel from the car, to the weather,
Speaker 2: to the couch everything.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And I always wanted to mix a lighter, sheer,
Speaker 4: more romantic choose very. I warn't because I'm really the
Speaker 4: only female outside of one other character. I felt really
Speaker 4: responsible of showing femineity and womanhood in this era, in
Speaker 4: this film, and so I always wanted to mix something
Speaker 4: sturdy and practical or something soft and like whimsical or angelic, right,
Speaker 4: and so like when we go to that Italian restaurant,
Speaker 4: I have on like this corduroy pencil skirt, but it's
Speaker 4: like periwinkle with these like really dainty like little bouquets
Speaker 4: of Paisleys and flowers. But then a very soft, sheer,
Speaker 4: powder pink like pussy bow.
Speaker 1: Yeah there's a rap.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I had a coat that I just draped
Speaker 3: the total.
Speaker 4: I always wanted to show these notes of like Jackie
Speaker 4: O vibes or like.
Speaker 3: Coreta cut Scott King vibes, or I wanted.
Speaker 4: To have this sense of like the quintessential woman that
Speaker 4: I wanted to make sure or like the dainty necklace
Speaker 4: and little small dainty earrings. I wanted that energy to
Speaker 4: somehow intercut with this very masculine, antiquated, you know, English almost.
Speaker 3: Vibe that you know prep schools can give.
Speaker 4: It's a constant pressure cooker the entire movie and filming it.
Speaker 4: I felt so uncomfortable to constantly be putting a lid on.
Speaker 4: She's so contained in a way that I'm not, and
Speaker 4: it felt so uncomfortable. But I knew that I was
Speaker 4: at the right space. So some of those things is
Speaker 4: also divine. Feeling uncomfortable. You know, There's a deliberateness. She
Speaker 4: talks much slower than I do. She takes her tom
Speaker 4: you know what I mean. I'm very like I'm a
Speaker 4: Gemini tours. So it's like and she's like, well, we'll
Speaker 4: see right, chop the onions, let's start there. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 4: but yeah, there's it's something beautiful to that broken things
Speaker 4: can also heal other broken things and it's not that
Speaker 4: stigmatism that you need to And this is a beautiful message.
Speaker 4: I hope that people catch. You don't need to be
Speaker 4: perfect or whole in order.
Speaker 6: To be there or help or be a listening ear
Speaker 6: yes for someone and in doing so, more likely than not,
Speaker 6: some healing will trickle one to you as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, today's lunch with Devine has been apic. She is
Speaker 2: a true star in her eyes, and you can tell
Speaker 2: she's got so much success.
Speaker 1: Ahead of her. She's also a total professional.
Speaker 2: So before she has to leave us to run to
Speaker 2: a photo shoot, I'm curious about what projects she has
Speaker 2: on the horizon.
Speaker 1: I gotta say, you're really one of her kind, and
Speaker 1: you really are. This is your time.
Speaker 2: I mean, you have and I just want to I'm
Speaker 2: going to just say you have brideheard coming up.
Speaker 1: Yes, you have Shadow for Rebel Wilson.
Speaker 2: You're starting in that you have an actually thriller with
Speaker 2: Kerrie Washington, who I love.
Speaker 1: Our kids in school together, like.
Speaker 2: Exactly shadow of course, and we're talking about your fashion
Speaker 2: like this is the year of devind.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much. I'm really excited.
Speaker 2: Oh this is really exciting and I'm super super excited
Speaker 2: that we got to spend thank you this time together
Speaker 2: because you're just an incredible person. You're forcing you give
Speaker 2: back and I love that if anyone's taking anything away
Speaker 2: I just feel like what you've taught me today is
Speaker 2: share what you learn.
Speaker 3: Because it'll come back to you with what you need
Speaker 3: to learn.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 4: That's what I've found in me giving up my knowledge
Speaker 4: to someone else. I always like within a month to
Speaker 4: the point where I can clock it. Yeah, of like
Speaker 4: ah me giving in that way, I've been received in
Speaker 4: this way.
Speaker 3: It's all reciprocal.
Speaker 1: Yeah, You've got a big heart. De mind. Thank you
Speaker 1: really do. Thank you so much for pulling up a
Speaker 1: today on Table for two with bb I absolutely do you.
Speaker 2: Table for two with Bruce Bosi is produced by iHeartRadio
Speaker 2: seven three seven Park and Airmail. Our executive producers are
Speaker 2: Bruce Bosi and Nathan King. Table for two is researched
Speaker 2: and written by Bridget arsenalt Our sound engineers are Paul
Speaker 2: Bowman and Alyssa Midcalf. Table for two's la production team
Speaker 2: is Danielle Romo and Lorraine Verrez. Our music supervisor is
Speaker 2: Randall poster.
Speaker 1: Our talent booking is by James Harkin.
Speaker 2: Special thanks to Amy Sugarman, Uni Cher, Kevin Yuvane, Bobby Bauer,
Speaker 2: Alison Kanter Raber, Barbara and Jen and Jeff Klein and
Speaker 2: the staff at the Tower Bar in the world famous
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