Delroy Lindo: ‘I get tired of the sound of my own voice – but I never get tired of talking about Sinners’

The star of the Oscar-tipped blockbuster speaks to Louis Chilton about the ‘genius’ of Ryan Coogler, his multiple collaborations with Spike Lee, and why, at 73, retirement is the furthest thing from his mind

Delroy Lindo: 'Sinners is telling the larger story of what happens when a community is violated' (Getty Images for Warner Bros)

Look man,” says Delroy Lindo, looking almost slightly defensive. “Perspective is important.” We are maybe 20 seconds into our conversation, and the British-American star of Sinners had warned that he’s going to talk softly, having lost his voice last night. That must be stressful when you’re an actor, I had suggested. If I lost my voice, I could just spend the day sipping lemon teas and trying to level up my Harvey Fierstein impression. But if Delroy Lindo lost his voice? On the wrong day, I suppose there could be professional ramifications. “I mean, yeah,” he says, then shrugs off the idea. “You can get stressed, but I try to be really, really, big on perspective. I’m sitting here in this very nice hotel. Man, I could be working at Tesco.”

It’s hard to really contemplate this possibility, because Lindo is one of those performers with a face screaming out for a camera. Over the past few decades, the now-73-year-old actor has proved himself a screen presence of rare, brilliant magnetism. He is probably best known for his repeat collaborations with Spike Lee – he’s terrific in films such as Crooklyn, Malcolm X and Da 5 Bloods – and is now getting serious Oscar buzz for his supporting turn in Sinners, Ryan Coogler’s vampire thriller. Today, he’s with me in the library room of a Soho hotel.

“I get tired of the sound of my own voice,” Lindo says softly, “but I never get tired of talking about Sinners.” It’s obvious this second sentiment is true, even if the first seems to beggar belief. Lindo’s voice, despite being lowered to half-mast, is a marvel: sonorous, steady, and characterful. His accent betrays nothing of his British origins (born in Lewisham, London, he moved to Canada while still a teenager) – though the mention of Tesco is a giveaway, I suppose.

By this point, whether you’ve seen it or not, you will probably be aware of Sinners. Released in cinemas in April (and re-released this month), the genre-mixing blockbuster has been one of the year’s big success stories: the highest-grossing original film in more than a decade, and an emergent heavyweight going into awards season. Michael B Jordan leads the film, playing entrepreneuring twins who open a juke joint in 1932 Mississippi, only for the club to be set upon by a gang of vampires. Lindo plays a droll, world-weary blues legend by the name of Delta Slim – a standout performance in a movie positively teeming with them.

A word you hear a lot when it comes to films such as Sinners, I say, is “smuggling” – the smuggling of sophisticated ideas and critiques into popular popcorn entertainment. It’s true of filmmakers such as Coogler and Jordan Peele (Get Out), and it’s especially true of Sinners, which uses its pulpy supernatural veneer to interrogate complex ideas about race and cultural appropriation. “It speaks to the genius of these storytellers, and the way they think,” says Lindo. “But… you referred to the term ‘smuggling’. And it’s not smuggling. Because it’s very apparent. They’re saying, ‘This is what I would like for you, the audience, to engage with’.”

Even as Sinners descends into a good old fashioned man-vs-vamp bloodbath, it’s always more than just empty thrills. “With Sinners, the violence is much more in-your-face, much more apparent,” Lindo says, “but I would contend that it’s certainly not violence for violence’s sake. It’s telling the larger story of what happens when a community is violated.”

Delta bluesman: Delroy Lindo as Slim in 'Sinners' (Warner Bros)

In this post-Everything Everywhere All At Once paradigm, it feels like no award is off the table for a film like Sinners. That a rumoured Oscar nomination would be Lindo’s first is a marked injustice; you could easily make the case for several of his past performances — particularly 1994’s Crooklyn, in which he played a scatty but well-meaning patriarch, or 2020’s Da 5 Bloods, another Spike Lee joint in which Lindo shines as an irascible Vietnam vet.

Da 5 Bloods was a particularly egregious snub, and he later said that he felt “profoundly disappointed” by the omission. A few years on, and now he’s fighting against the same forces of expectation. “When you have people constantly talking about [an Oscar nomination], of course it becomes much more present in the consciousness,” Lindo says. “It is a dynamic that one has to navigate. But without sounding coy… the job remains to focus on the work as much as possible.”

What this country instilled in me is the critical importance of knowing one’s history

Delroy Lindo

“It’s hard to talk about this, man,” he adds, “but I want to stay focused on working, and quality of work, as much as possible. Because in the final analysis that’s the barometer by which one will be ‘judged’.”

ADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.

ADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.

Lindo gives the sense of a man who thinks very deeply about things. When I ask about the UK – the country he spent the first 13 years of his life – he pauses for a second. “What this country instilled in me is the critical importance of knowing one’s history. Growing up in the UK I was not at all aware of the Windrush phenomenon, how it directly and fundamentally impacted British culture, which is stunning to contemplate,” he says – because his Jamaican parents were themselves part of it.

This is, he says, part of the reason he began writing a memoir – which delves into his life, but also his mother’s life, and her generation. “The answer is about seeking out who one is on the planet, and what one comes from, and how that impacts who one is in the present, and who one is in the future.”

It may be the peppering of pronominal “ones” to blame, but there’s a slight thespian grandeur to the way Lindo speaks. It makes sense: up until the 1990s, Lindo was predominantly a stage actor, even earning a Tony nomination for his role in the August Wilson play Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. After pivoting to the screen, he distinguished himself as a character actor in films such as Get Shorty (1995), The Cider House Rules (1999), and Romeo Must Die (2000). But it will, for most people, always be his work with Lee that defines his legacy.

Blood brothers: Delroy Lindo and co in 'Da 5 Bloods' (Netflix)

“When you assess Spike over the span of his career, it’s a pretty stunning achievement,” says Lindo. “I was just at a celebration in Los Angeles for Wynn Thomas, [the acclaimed production designer and 11-time Lee collaborator]. Wynn is a genius – and a perfect example of somebody whose career has been centrally informed by their work with Spike, as it has been for me, and various other actors. When you view Spike through his influence on other creative workers, one understands the worship of him. Being inside of it, it’s extraordinary.”

Thanks to the one-two hit of Da 5 Bloods and Sinners, it’s fair to say that Lindo’s stock has never been higher; it’s an impressive feat for someone on the cusp of their mid-Seventies. Most people outside of showbiz will have retired by this point, I suggest – and he almost physically balks. “I do not plan to retire,” he says, firmly. “I plan on continuing to work and be creative. And the nature of that creativity will shift.”

In addition to the memoir, Lindo also has a film that he plans to direct – previously reported to centre on the Windrush generation – and is “looking for other creative outlets to broaden my footprint, hopefully”.

“And I say this with the full understanding that this stuff is not easy,” he continues. “But as long as there are stories that I want to be a part of telling, as long as I feel that I can bring something of value to these projects, I’ll continue working.” And as long as that happens, Delroy Lindo will be worth watching.

‘Sinners’ is back in cinemas at BFI IMAX from 12 to 18 Dec, and is available to stream on demand now