It all started with dim sum, said Da’Vine Joy Randolph. It ended with knives pulled, screaming, and a near-death feeling.
Speaking on The Graham Norton Show on Friday, the Holdovers film star talked about the time when she and her best friend were enjoying a dim sum meal. Suddenly, strange noises erupted, and people started scrambling 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.’”
Her friend disappeared, and Randolph was even more nervous. “I’m like, ‘That’s weird,’” she said. “Then people start screaming, so then my brain’s like, ‘Something’s going on.’”
Randolph began looking for a way to protect herself as diners fled out a nearby exit. “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. “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. 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 said. “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.’”
It turned out that the incident was a “smash-and-grab” burglary that went bad.
“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.’”
Norton was impressed.
“We need Da’Vine in an emergency!” Norton declared. “That’s what we need. That is impressive.”
