The devil works hard but Delroy Lindo and Denzel Washington work harder. Washington, who famously stays off the grid when it comes to the latest pop culture moments, hosted his first ever movie screening for Ryan Coogler’s cultural phenomenon Sinners at the Harmony Gold theater on Thursday night.
So what compelled him to rise to the occasion? “I love Ryan Coogler,” Washington told Deadline. “I’d do anything he asked of me. He called and asked me to do this, but the real draw was that Delroy and I have a 48-year history. So, when Ryan called to ask, it was an immediate yes.”
At the start of the panel moderation, Washington encouraged the crowd to stand up and give Lindo his well-deserved flowers — and when Washington speaks, the crowd certainly listened. The nearly five decades worth of history that Washington is referring to is their time spent at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco along with his and Lindo’s tie to Spike Lee, though their only onscreen roles together has been in Malcolm X, they’ve each separately starred in many of Lee’s projects from Da 5 Bloods, Crooklyn, Highest 2 Lowest and Mo’ Better Blues.
Washington joked that in all the years he’s known Lindo, the two things he’d learned from him in their younger years were: “First, a loaf of wheat bread, a jar of honey and a jar of peanut butter was all you need to survive. Second, that you need to act and analyze stuff. I remember back in school, Delroy did this scene and they had no notes — but they had notes for me. I thought I was pretty good. But then I saw Delroy, and was like ‘Whoa, OK, I have to go home and work. It’s so cliche, but he’s one of the finest actors. There’s a purity to Delroy,” he continued. “Delroy’s discipline, attention to detail and his spirit. In those days, he [would always be so open] about the things that bothered him, which I admire, and I still do. I realized that he had no filter to him, he had to tell the truth. I began to understand that’s what I was trying to figure out about his acting, that there’s a foundation, purity and honesty and an integrity that’s undeniable and something to reach for.”
Lindo then responded with a story of his own about Washington back in their school days. “There are two things that I remember that always stick in my mind about Denzel and I and how far we go back. We used to stand on the corner of Leavenworth and Sutter in Downtown San Francisco, and we were talking about our aspirations for our careers and I remember saying to you, that ‘I don’t ever want to be in competition, man. There should be space for all of us.’ And the fact that I’ve maintained that ethos is one of the reasons that I’ve been able to appreciate the extraordinary things that this man has done, because to the extent he talks about what he appreciates about me as an actor, right back at you brother.”
The second admiration point that Lindo mentions for Washington came at a low point in his career. Lindo describes the rough nature of the industry and the constant rejection wearing him down. During a period of time when the actor was living in New York, he had run into Washington briefly, and that encounter lead to a pep talk that Lindo definitely needed at the time. “This man said to me, ‘Dee, don’t leave man. You’re too good. This will turn around for you. Do not leave.’” Lindo explained. “And that moment want the linchpin at a particular point in my career. I got some encouragement from a friend. And that was the difference between staying in the game or leaving. Part of the reason that I hung in was based on what you told me.”
Lindo continued dishing out advice to the crowd. “Creatives, I’m telling you this. No matter what’s happening, hanging in there. You must hang in there.”
Washington added: “They say if the devil leaves you alone, you’re doing something wrong. Also, Delroy, there’s a nominal fee for that advice I gave you.”
“Check is in the mail.” Lindo quipped back.
Now the pair have a new spiritual directorial tie through Coogler – it was reported that Washington will have an upcoming role in Black Panther 3. During our conversation with Washington, he said the secret to Coogler’s penchant for collecting heavy weight actors is in his spirit is the fact that “he’s so shy and sweet.” Lindo attributed Coogler’s magic to his “endearing” personality. “I would describe it as him having the people’s touch. He hasn’t lost that with all of his success. He’s still a regular dude from Oakland. And he maintains that demeanor that’s why he’s so relatable.”
In Sinners, Lindo plays Delta Slim, an accomplished Blues musician, who falls down on his luck and into a drinking habit, due to the oppressive discriminations of the American Jim Crow South. Washington asked Lindo what drew him to the script, as his character is weighed down by the cruel world, but also emerges as somewhat of a father figure to the group in the film. “I knew from reading the script that [Ryan] was using the [horror] genre to tell a much larger story. In my opinion it’s not a horror film. There are horrific components, but he’s telling a much larger story.”
Lindo gets a very heartfelt and sorrowful scene in the film that was partially improvised, where Delta Slim is singing in the car with Sammie (Miles Caton) and Stack (Michael B. Jordan) to honor his friends who viciously died at the hands of racists. “You meet him as a drunk – because he’s self medicating. Through asking Ryan to keep that moment in the film [that he nearly deleted], I was hoping to explain to the audience why he was self-medicating like that. That scene was not there and neither was the chain gang scene. I felt that moment was fundamental to the way that he is in the movie.” Lindo told Deadline about the importance of pushing to keep the scene in the film.
The actor later recalled with Washington about the strength of collaborating with Coogler to add more dimension to his plagued but wise character. “He introduces Delta Slim so brilliantly, but I told Ryan that he falls off in the second act. Ryan heard me and said that we could work on that,” Lindo said. “Working with Ryan is a dream. He’s incredibly collaborative. He was very open, not just with me, with all of us, and I’m talking to the cast and crew. He’s a collaborative spirit. He genuinely wants to hear what everybody has to contribute. Now, he may not use it, but he wants to hear what you have to say, and he values that.”