‘The Holdovers’ Star Da’Vine Joy Randolph Remembers “Near-Death” Robbery at a Restaurant: “I Wolverine’d It”

Da’Vine Joy Randoph is remembering her harrowing “near-death” experience witnessing a robbery while enjoying a dim sum meal with her friend. The Holdovers star said she fled for the restaurant’s kitchen because “they’ve got knives.”

Randolph recalled the story during an appearance on The Graham Norton Show on Friday. She said her “back was to the door” during an “amazing dim sum brunch” when “I hear this kerfuffle, and I see people rushing in, so my brain’s life, ‘Is this a flash mob?’”

“But I was like, ‘Um, that’s not a trend anymore,’” Randolph continued. “We haven’t done that in a long time.”

While she was looking at the door, her friend disappeared from the table. “Then people started screaming,” Randolph said. “So then my brain’s like, ‘Something’s going on.’”

As her fellow diners ran for the exit, Randolph made her way to the kitchen. “In my brain, I’m like, ‘They’ve got knives. Good ones.’”

In an act of self-preservation, Randolph began collecting knives. “I Wolverine’d it,” she said, miming herself putting knives in between her fingers. “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.’”

From outside the kitchen, Randolph then recalled hearing screams, and a woman yelling “not my baby!” before a man entered the kitchen and told her not to worry because “I’m in the marines.”

“I was like, ‘Oh, we’re good,’” Randolph said.

Later, the actress learned that the incident was related to a “smash-and-grab” robbery of the jewelry store next to the mall where she and her friend were eating. “Apparently that jeweler had a private detective, so they can carry arms, so they had a little surprise for them,” she explained. “It escalated way too crazy. They were running through the mall with the bounty and guns.”

Host Norton listened in awe to Randolph’s story, before telling the crowd, “we need Da’Vine in an emergency. If you see her [at the mall] tomorrow, run!”