Da'Vine Joy Randolph recalls 'near-death' dim sum experience, grabbing knives at restaurant: 'This is it'

Da’Vine Joy Randolph has opened up about a harrowing experience she had when armed burglars stormed a mall where she was having dim sum with a friend. 

While visiting the The Graham Norton Show on Friday, the Holdovers star recalled a day when she and her best friend were enjoying a meal when she suddenly heard strange noises and people started flooding into the restaurant. 

“We’re having amazing dim sum brunch and my back — it’s crazy when you have a near-death experience, the details, you remember everything — my back was to the door and I hear this kerfuffle and I see people rushing in, so my brain’s like, ‘Is this a flash mob?’” Randolph said. “Because, like, why is everyone rushing in? But I was like, ‘Uhh, that’s not on trend anymore. We haven’t done that in a long time.’”

When Randolph turned to ask what was happening, she discovered her pal had disappeared. “I’m like, ‘That’s weird,’” she said. “Then people start screaming, so then my brain’s like, ‘Something’s going on.’” 

As diners tried to “flee out of the exit,” Randolph remembered looking for a way to protect herself. “There’s a kitchen with barnyard doors, swinging doors, so that was the closest thing to me, and so I go into [it],” she said, noting that the restaurant sold both dim sum and sushi. "So, in my brain, I'm like, 'They've got knives. Good ones.'" 

She then began collecting as many knives as she could. “I don’t know why,” the Golden Globe winner explained. “I Wolverine’d it and I’m doing these yoga breaths of fire, and I’m like, ‘This is it. I don’t know what I’m preparing for, but this is it.’”

“Then I’m hearing, like, screams, and this lady’s like, ‘Not my baby!’ And I was like, ‘Oh my god,’” the actress continued as host Graham Norton and fellow guests Paul Mescal, Andrew Scott, and Kingsley Ben-Adir listened in shock. “Then this guy comes in and I’m like, ‘Is he a threat? Or are we cool?’ And he leans over to me and he’s like, ‘Don’t worry. I’m in the marines.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, we’re good.’”

In the end, Randolph revealed that the incident was a “smash-and-grab” burglary that went off the rails. 

“There was a jewelry store just outside of the mall. There was a smash-and-grab, but apparently that jeweler had a private detective, so they can carry arms, so they had a little surprise for them, and so it escalated way too crazy,” she said. “They were running through the mall with the bounty and guns, and they chose to run through… the mall, just to escape, but all that happened. And you just don’t know, you’re just hearing crazy things, so I was like, ‘This is it.’” 

“We need Da’Vine in an emergency!” Norton declared. “That’s what we need. That is impressive.”

Indeed.

Watch Randolph recall her "near-death" dim sum experience in the clip above. 

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