Da’Vine Joy Randolph has already brought her vocal chops to “Rustin,” “High Fidelity,” and the upcoming Pharrell Williams biopic, but the Academy Award winner is ready to fully showcase her opera background onscreen.
Randolph told IndieWire while attending the “Through Her Lens” cocktail reception, hosted by Tribeca and Chanel, that Pablo Larraín’s buzzy Maria Callas film “Maria” has opened the door for opera biopics — and Randolph is more than ready to bring history-making Leontyne Price’s story to the screen.
“It’s ironic because Angelina Jolie has the Maria Callas biopic [‘Maria’] coming up,” Randolph said. “I’m a classically trained opera singer. I want to do a biopic of an opera singer.”
Leontyne Price is celebrated as one of the great modern vocalists — she played title roles in both “Porgy and Bess” and “Aida.” If a success, “Maria” — and Randolph — could be what ultimately ushers Price’s legacy into movie theaters.
Randolph’s voice will also be on display in the upcoming (non-LEGO) Pharrell Williams biopic, which marks her first role since winning the Oscar for “The Holdovers.” Randolph told IndieWire that the film is not a traditional musical.
“I would probably say it’s a film with music. It’s not like an opera or ‘Les Mis,’ in the sense of like everything is sung. There’s more speaking than singing,” Randolph said, while also adding that she has three songs in the feature, one of which is being billed as a showstopper.
“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” director Michel Gondry directs this Williams biopic, with “Elvis” actor Kelvin Harrison Jr. portraying the Grammy winner during his coming-of-age years in Virginia Beach in 1977. Brian Tyree Henry, Missy Elliott, Janelle Monáe, Quinta Brunson, Anderson .Paak, Jaboukie Young-White, and Halle Bailey also star in the Universal film.
The untitled feature wrapped in April 2024 after two months of production and is planned for a May 2025 release.
Randolph’s love of (and talent for) performing — especially stage singing — puts her in the future-EGOT conversation, especially after her Tony Award nomination back in 2012. Yet Randolph is apprehensive about returning to Broadway again more than a decade later.
“Broadway would be like, wow,” she said. “It’s the hardest job in my entire life. I would have to literally pray on every aspect of it to do that on stage.”
Also hard is playing a convincing opera singer when someone is not classically trained. Randolph doesn’t have that problem, of course, but before Jolie did with “Maria.” After taking singing lessons, Jolie suggested to The Hollywood Reporter that “every human being take an opera class” as a form of meditative release.
“You discover how much we lock our pain in our bodies. Our voice gets tight, our shoulders go high, we get stomach aches, we do all these things, and it’s a protection for us,” Jolie said. “The hardest thing was feeling again and breathing again and opening again in the way that this film required that I had really not done for quite a while.”
