SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Delroy Lindo has one of those faces and voices that are hard to forget when you see him on the big screen. Take this moment from 1999's Oscar-winning drama "The Cider House Rules."
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE CIDER HOUSE RULES")
DELROY LINDO: (As Arthur Rose) These rules ain't for us. We the ones supposed to make our own rules.
DETROW: This year, after five decades of acting, he has finally been nominated for an Oscar for his supporting role as Delta Slim, a wise blues man in "Sinners," the genre-bending supernatural thriller that picked up a record-shattering 16 Oscar nominations.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "SINNERS")
MICHAEL B JORDAN: (As Stack) They ain't paying you $20 a night. I know that.
LINDO: (As Delta Slim) You ain't paying no $20 a night. You paying $20, maybe, tonight. I ain't never heard of your juke. Maybe it's here tonight. Is it here tomorrow night, a week after that?
DETROW: Lindo has played a wide range of characters over the years - loving fathers, the occasional gangster and men carrying the burden of past traumas, often in the films of Spike Lee. And Delroy Lindo is with me now to talk about his work at "Sinners," as well as his storied career. Welcome to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.
LINDO: Thank you. Thank you very much.
DETROW: What would you have thought when you first started acting if somebody said, you're going to get an Oscar nomination, but it's not going to happen till you're 73 years old?
LINDO: (Laughter) I would've asked them, if I'm going to get an Oscar nomination that many years into the future, I guess that means I will be continuing to work as an actor, right?
DETROW: Yeah.
LINDO: And had the person said, well, yeah, you'll continue to work, I would've said, OK. And then I would've said, will it be quality work that I'm doing? And if the person had said, yes, some of it will be quality, you will get your opportunities to do quality work along the way, I would've probably said, OK, then.
DETROW: Not that anyone does have a choice like that, but (laughter)...
LINDO: Right.
DETROW: ...That would be a thoughtful...
LINDO: Right.
DETROW: ...Way to think about it. You - and you have done a lot of quality work over the years. You've played a lot of memorable characters.
LINDO: Thank you.
DETROW: How does Delta Slim fit into those characters? How did you think of this character? What was important to you to portray on screen?
LINDO: Probably the most important thing for me - and this maybe sounds a little pious, but it's the truth - the important thing for me was to help Ryan, through my embodiment of this character, manifest his vision.
DETROW: You read a lot about the blues and the different musicians over the years and kind of what personifies them. And obviously, Delta Slim's a guy who drinks a lot, a guy who has a lot of sadness in his past. Like, what were the most important traits of the blues men that you were thinking about and reading about?
LINDO: Moving around a lot, working, making the music, pursuing the music because so many other aspects of their lives are tenuous and itinerant and - but the music is the constant, which I related to, just in terms of my own parallel, in terms of how acting is a grounding force for me. And then there was - there is the exposure to the particular musicians that I listened to a lot of their music - you know, Son House and Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf, Ike Turner and listening, looking at a lot of documentary film in addition to that.
DETROW: That connection between their stories and the music, I think, is a good way to get into the most powerful scene that your character has in the movie. This is the scene where Delta Slim's riding in a car with Stack, played by Michael B. Jordan, and Sammie Moore, played by Miles Caton, and he starts telling a story of really horrifying racial violence.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "SINNERS")
LINDO: (As Delta Slim) Two-dollar train ticket. Train conductor saw him. Klan got ahold to him, searched his pockets, found all that money. Made up a story about him killing some white man for it and raping that white man's wife...
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character) Was a murderer (ph).
LINDO: (As Delta Slim) ...And then lynching him right there in the railroad station.
(CROSSTALK)
DETROW: And at the end, he just starts humming.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "SINNERS")
LINDO: (As Delta Slim, humming).
DETROW: The humming is so powerful, and a lot of people have weighed in on why they think it is so powerful. And I'm wondering what you thought was so important for that character to just tell that story.
LINDO: In the moment, it was simply an extension of what I was feeling and putting the feeling into a, quote-unquote, "musical form." The holler was a - I don't know what it was, but it was an organic extension of what was happening in the moment. The fact that audiences have analyzed that moment as their moment of witnessing, quote-unquote, "the birth of the blues" from the standpoint of the connection between the pain, the tragedy and the musical expression of pain and tragedy, it's incredibly affirming that audiences are making that connection. But in the moment, when I was working in the scene, it was just an organic expression of pain. But I have to say this, I don't view blues music as music of victims.
DETROW: Is it almost like taking ownership of an experience like that and making it your own thing?
LINDO: Sure. I think that's a reasonable way of putting it. And also, you're not going to dictate how I feel about my story. This is the way I feel about my story.
DETROW: I want to zoom out and ask some other questions about other roles you've played...
LINDO: Sure.
DETROW: ...And what you've learned along the way...
LINDO: Sure.
DETROW: ...Specifically, another great director you've worked with, Spike Lee. You made several movies with Spike Lee in the '90s, including "Malcolm X" and "Crooklyn." After a period of time, you were with him again in "Da 5 Bloods," and I'm wondering what you got from working with Spike Lee that maybe you didn't get from other directors, how he stood out to you as an actor?
LINDO: I won't make a direct comparison with other directors. What I will say about Spike is something that I always say about Spike, which is he trusts me. He has a creative regard and trust for me. I've always felt that from the very beginning - "Malcolm X," West Indian Archie...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "MALCOLM X")
LINDO: (As West Indian Archie) You don't ever write anything down. You file it up here, like I do.
LINDO: ...On through Woody Carmichael in "Crooklyn"...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "CROOKLYN")
LINDO: (As Woody Carmichael) I got to be like a thief in the night in this house every time I want to get some privacy to do my work.
ALFRE WOODARD: (As Carolyn) You selfish child. Don't tell me about privacy.
LINDO: ...On through Rodney in "Clockers."
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "CLOCKERS")
LINDO: (As Rodney Little) I'm a great businessman, Strike, and I got me the world's greatest product.
So what I get from Spike is a trust and a regard.
DETROW: What are you thinking about and hoping for as you look forward, as you look at the roles you still want to do and how this nomination - or maybe win - changes that in any way?
LINDO: You know, it's - oftentimes, it's very difficult to talk about acting without sounding, you know, precious 'cause it's - you know, on the one hand, it's a job of work, and I try to approach it as a job of work. On the other hand, it's a very particular and special job of work. I would say that what I'm hoping for and looking forward to - more challenging roles, roles that I can invest in in such a way that it says something about the human condition. I hope there's more of that in my future.
DETROW: That is actor Delroy Lindo, nominated for an Academy Award. Thank you so much for talking to us.
LINDO: Thank you. All the very best to you.
(SOUNDBITE OF LUDWIG GORANSSON'S "(DELTA) SLIM'S PATCH")
DETROW: And tomorrow on the show, we will hear from another "Sinners" Oscar nominee, legendary costume designer Ruth E. Carter, about how she helped shape the movie's storytelling.
(SOUNDBITE OF LUDWIG GORANSSON'S "(DELTA) SLIM'S PATCH") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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