Da’Vine Joy Randolph Leads ‘Dedicated to Morris Burke’ in Major New Role

Grab your popcorn and let’s chat, because Da’Vine Joy Randolph is finally getting the kind of Hollywood moment we’ve been waiting to see.

Variety just broke the news that Da’Vine Joy Randolph is set to lead director Will Ropp’s indie dark comedy “Dedicated to Morris Burke,” playing Judy Brooks, a woman whose late best-selling novelist husband dedicated his final book to a man she’s never heard of instead of her. Grief, mystery and a whole lot of unraveling ensue.

And she’s not sharing the marquee this time. She’s leading it.

Da’Vine Has Been That Girl

Da’Vine Joy Randolph has been doing career-best work for over a decade. Broadway stage, a Tony nomination, a scene-stealing turn opposite Eddie Murphy in “Dolemite Is My Name” and an Oscar for “The Holdovers.” She has been in the room, on the poster and in the awards conversation again and again.

But look closely at the type of roles themselves.

Supporting. Second lead. The friend. The confidante. The scene stealer who elevates everyone around her but rarely gets to carry the whole thing on her own back.

And, bro, why?

That is not an accident, and it is not a coincidence. It is what happens when Hollywood decides a plus size Black woman can be brilliant, award-winning and beloved, and still gets filed under “supporting” as a default setting.

Talent was never the question. Access was.

“Dedicated to Morris Burke” flips that script. Director Will Ropp said it himself: “I couldn’t be more excited for Da’Vine to be leading this stellar cast. She’s the perfect actor to bring this heartbreaking, hilarious and complicated character to life.”

And that cast is not small potatoes either. Kate McKinnon, Amy Sedaris, Janeane Garofalo, Alison Pill and Andrew Rannells are all in supporting roles around her.

Read that again.

Around her.

Yeah. We’re going to let that marinate for a second.

Why this is bigger than one casting credit

Representation conversations in plus size media can get stuck in a loop of firsts and onlys, and honestly, we’re tired of it too. While we respect the queens whose shoulders we stand on for giving us repeatable hits, we’re ready for something fresh and new.

And what says, “I have arrived,” more than being top billing? Because it is a different currency than screen time.

It’s about who a studio and a director trust to hold an audience’s attention for 90 minutes without a thinner, more conventionally cast lead standing next to her to soften the risk.

It also lands at a moment when plus size representation in film is still wildly inconsistent. We get bodies in the background, in the friend group and in the makeover montage.

But the woman whose grief, curiosity and unraveling marriage is the entire plot?

We rarely get her.

Judy Brooks is messy, obsessive, funny and heartbroken. She is a full human being carrying a film, not a supporting flourish propping one up.

And that distinction matters.

Because we don’t just need to see plus size women in movies. We need to see them driving the story.

Da’Vine has talked before about feeling the weight of representation in her work, saying she was searching for that same visibility herself when she stepped into “Dolemite Is My Name.” Years later, she is not just finding it. She is becoming the visibility she once wanted to see.

Now, she’s becoming the visibility.

And hell, you might just see a plus size woman starring in your next local indie film. Because she did it, and baby, we know we can too.

That’s the part I keep coming back to.

What we’re watching for next

“Dedicated to Morris Burke” is Ropp’s sophomore feature after his debut “Brian,” written by Jeremy Leder and produced by Andy Horwitz’s Big Swell Entertainment.

No release date yet. No trailer. No press tour.

Just a casting announcement that already has us circling this one.

Be prepared to be sick of us or just as obsessed. We’ll be tracking every update on this film because a plus size woman leading an ensemble stacked with names like this is not a small industry moment.

It’s a marker.

And TCF plans to be loud about it the whole way through production, festival premiere and release.

Because Da’Vine has been proving for years that she can steal a scene.

Now, she gets to own the movie.