Da’Vine Joy Randolph wants to play musician Sister Rosetta Tharpe in a biographical drama.

The Holdovers star, who was a classically trained opera singer before she became an actress, wants to combine both of her talents in one project by playing a musician – and she already has a few ideas in mind.

“I really want to do a biopic about a singer. There’s a couple that’s ruminating in my head. I think the story of Sister Rosetta Tharpe is phenomenal and no one talks (about it),” she said on the WTF with Marc Maron podcast.

“I had put Sister Rosetta kind of on the backburner, in the back of my mind, of like, ‘Yeah, maybe.’ And then I saw (Baz Luhrmann’s 2022 movie) Elvis and it got me hype… I think a Sister Rosetta Tharpe character could potentially pack a punch.”

Randolph, 37, revealed that there has been interest in the project “from some people”.

“For me, once I know that there’s real interest, then that’s when I’m like, ‘Great, now I need to go into the lab. I need to take these nails off, I need to get that guitar going…'” she added.

The Idol star explained that she has a list of musicians she wants to play on-screen. In addition to Tharpe, she also wants to portray soprano Leontyne Price and jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald.

Of the latter idea, she noted, “I would have to master Ella’s voice. I wouldn’t even touch it until I mastered that sound. But Ella’s like, as amazing as it is, that’s like a very commercial (project).”

Randolph ticked one off her list in 2022 when she portrayed gospel singer Mahalia Jackson in 2023’s Rustin. In the brief scene, Jackson sings at the podium before Martin Luther King Jr.’s iconic I Have a Dream speech during the March on Washington in 1963.

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