On Sunday (March 10), viewers tuned into the 96th Academy Awards, which went down in Los Angeles' Dolby Theatre and saw comedian Jimmy Kimmel as its host. One of the night’s biggest moments came when highly favored star Da’Vine Joy Randolph was presented with the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the ‘70s-era comedy-drama The Holdovers. The first-time winner beat out peers like America Ferrera and Danielle Brooks in that category.

"I didn't think I was supposed to be doing this as a career," she said tearfully during her acceptance speech. "I started off as a singer, and my mother said to me, 'Go across that street to that theater department. There's something for you there.' And I thank my mother for doing that... For so long, I've always wanted to be different, and now I realize I just need to be myself. I thank you for seeing me."

In The Holdovers, Randolph starred as Mary Lamb, a boarding school cafeteria manager whose son was killed during the Vietnam War. In addition to the Oscars, her performance won her a wealth of other trophies and honors since the film's release.

"I think the biggest thing was that there was room for me to fill in the blanks," Randolph said about her approach to the character in an interview for NPR’s “It’s Been A Minute” series. "I really wanted to make sure that [Mary] was someone that people could really connect with no matter what they looked like. I am always trying to leave Easter eggs or subliminal messages with my characters, but especially with her; certain nuances of how she wore her hair or her glasses. I showed [the props team] a picture of my grandmother with her glasses and I said, 'If you could find these glasses, that would really be awesome.' And they [did] find the glasses."