Delroy Lindo on His ‘Sinners’ Performance That Finally Landed Him an Oscar Nom

When I spoke to Delroy Lindo in November at TheWrap’s “Sinners” photo shoot, our conversation predictably drifted to “Da 5 Bloods.”

I was confused, I confessed, when the Academy gave that 2020 Spike Lee joint a Best Original Score nomination and nothing more — most notably snubbing Lindo, whose performance remains one of the decade’s best.

“If you were confused,” Lindo said, laughing, “how do you think I felt?”

Five years later, the Academy did not repeat the confusion, nominating the 73-year-old thespian for the time, for “Sinners.” Though Lindo earned acclaim from the start for his turn as the haunted alcoholic bluesman Delta Slim, the Oscar recognition came as something of a surprise. Prior to nominations morning, neither the Actor Awards nor the Golden Globes nor the Critics Choice Awards had tossed him a nod.

“I was maintaining distance — and emotional distance,” Lindo said. “I was doing all these events in support of the film, in support of myself in the film. The morning of the announcement, I did not watch it.”

Instead, he got the good news from a family member. “My son called me,” he said. “It was a beautiful call to receive, but more specifically it was a beautiful call to receive from my son, who had witnessed what had happened in light of ‘Da 5 Bloods.’ He was right there. So for he and I to be able to share this moment of celebration was very, very special.”

Lindo was part of a “Sinners” wave, one that brought the film 16 nominations, toppling the record established by “All About Eve” 75 years prior (and subsequently tied by “Titanic” and “La La Land”). In such a moment, Lindo called himself “extra specially gratified, extra-specially thankful” — not just to see the film succeed but to get to live with its cast and crew for that much longer.

“It’s extremely rewarding, both in terms of additional appreciation for the work and the work that everybody put into it, but also getting to know my colleagues that much better and feeling a closeness develop, in addition to the closeness that we developed during the time we were making the film,” he said. “That’s real, and it’s especially rewarding and pleasing because it doesn’t happen all the time, by any stretch.”

This camaraderie comes through on screen, especially via Delta Slim’s relationship with Sammie “Preacherboy” Moore. Just as Slim takes a young blues legend in the making under his wing (literally giving his own life so the music may live on through the boy), Lindo too developed a strong rapport with first-time actor Miles Caton, who plays Sammie.

“He was so open and so willing,” Lindo said. “He was like an open vessel. From an acting point of view, he was always very open and present to moving the work forward in whatever way was most appropriate. It was really rich, and a joy to work with him.”

The relationship goes both ways. When he spoke with TheWrap in November, Caton was eager to heap praise on his on- and off-screen mentor.

“Delroy, he’s a vet, man,” the younger actor said. “He’s a legend. Just getting to see him work was crazy. He has such a unique process to himself. When it’s time to go, when it’s time to act, he just transforms.”

A lifetime of compounding trauma has led Delta Slim to drown himself in booze as he waits for the next weekend gig to come along. Where Lindo’s Paul in “Da 5 Bloods” turns to the Make America Great Again movement as a salve for the world’s cruelty, Slim turns to drink and music. The promise of more liquor becomes the siren song that lures him to a cursed evening. Lindo plays the part with humor, empathy and nuance.

The actor received particular praise for a scene he’s in with Caton and Michael B. Jordan, where Lindo delivers an intense and emotional monologue as the trio drive toward their fate.

“If you’re in concert with the language, then other things start to happen that inform how one is working in the moment,” he said. “Things start to happen organically within oneself, with the other actors in the scene, and all of that was present when we were working on that scene in the car.”

Soon Lindo will step behind the camera for his directorial debut, which will shoot in Jamaica. This marks the next evolution of a stage and screen career that spans more than half a century. While he has had many acclaimed roles over the years, this decade — and this moment — has been particularly special.

“As successful as ‘Da 5 Bloods’ was, and ‘The Harder They Fall,’ they fell into a certain niche because they ended up on streaming,” Lindo said. “This is not to denigrate streaming, but ‘Sinners’ is a very different animal in as much as it has existed in a movie theater and has required that people, as a community, go to a theater and interact with it, view it. In addition, the fact that it was built for an IMAX screen…it’s much more enveloping, and it’s much more of an experience that reaches out and includes the audience in an extra-special way.”

This story first ran in the Down to the Wire issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine. Read more from the issue here.

The post Delroy Lindo on His ‘Sinners’ Performance That Finally Landed Him an Oscar Nom appeared first on TheWrap.