Why Da’Vine Joy Randolph Says Working with Sandra Bullock and Paul Giamatti Is Like Boxing (Exclusive)

Da’Vine Joy Randolph is the first to admit that acting is “crazy.”

“Imagine I'm just meeting you now,” the star of The Holdovers exclaims mid-PEOPLE interview, her hands fluttering. “Imagine we go on set and we're supposed to play long-lost lovers. I now have to be in love with you and make everyone believe it, and I just met you five minutes ago.” 

She pauses with the impeccable comedic timing of a pro. “That's insane, right?”

The 37-year-old Pennsylvania native has stolen the show on Only Murders in the Building, High Fidelity and her breakout turn opposite Eddie Murphy in Dolemite Is My Name. Nevertheless, Randolph describes herself as “the new kid on the block” during her first days on set.

“That first week,” she tells PEOPLE, “I'm feeling them out.” 

In fact, Randolph thinks of it as boxing — she doesn’t come out swinging. “Boxers, that first round, they're barely touching each other,” she explains. “And as a viewer, we're like, ‘Will you fight already?’

“That’s because they're using that first round to see the habits: ‘Okay, you lead with this leg when you come here, okay, got it.’ They're learning each other. That's how my first week is when I'm working with an actor.”

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So when she met Sandra Bullock on the set of 2022’s action-rom-com The Lost City, Randolph says she began by feeling the Oscar winner out. 

“With acting, you gotta keep in mind everyone has a different method, experience, education, and how they do their craft,” states Randolph. “I'm not going to go up to Sandra Bullock and be like, ‘Okay, now Sandra, listen, this is my process and this is how I work. Meet me there.’”

She learned that philosophy — and how to act using a wide array of tools and techniques — in her Yale School of Drama graduate studies. “What I'm grateful for is Yale taught us all the different styles of acting,” she says. “That’s been such an aid for me in my career as I've worked with some pretty big-name people.”

Randolph’s fellow Yale alum Paul Giamatti stars opposite her in the critically acclaimed The Holdovers, from director Alexander Payne and screenwriter David Hemingson. Training in the same acting program, it turns out, meant an instant connection on the set of the 1970-set story of a fictional New England boarding school. 

“What was so awesome about Paul was that he and I boxed the same,” recalls Randolph. “I was like, ‘Oh,’ and immediately we felt it. We knew.”

She continues, “The fact that we already were here as our baseline, we were like, ‘Okay, let's take this all the way.’ 

“I think why people are commenting on the amazing chemistry and the connection and the tenderness that we have — number one, he's a beautiful, amazing human being, even more so than his acting is great. And that helps because it allows me to feel safe and comfortable, to be vulnerable around him and to let my guard down.”

And, she adds, they instinctively knew each others’ styles in the “boxing” ring. “It allowed for us to really dig in deeper.”

Giamatti, 56, agrees. “She and I are very similar in some ways,” the actor tells PEOPLE of his costar. He adds as a caveat, “She's a better actor than me.”

Randolph’s supporting performance as school cook Mary Lamb has appeared on dozens of awards season shortlists, including a National Board of Review win and Golden Globe nomination.

“I’m grateful,” she says of this career moment. “Every time I think I'm in control and trying to do something, it doesn't work. There's nothing on my résumé that I went after. Nothing… Life is life-ing, and it’s like, ‘Nope, you're not going to be in control.’”

So at this point, she says, “I’m just hands off. I'm now like, ‘Okay, let's go. Wherever you see me next.’ When [The Holdovers] came to me, I was like, ‘Okay, this is where we're going next.’”

That, adds Randolph, is her advice for fellow aspiring artists. “Just keep going and keep exploring,” she says. “Because it's going to find you.”

For more on Randolph, pick up this week’s issue of PEOPLE.