Delroy Lindo is claiming victory

Fresh Air

NPR

Society & Culture, Arts, Tv & Film, Books

4.3 • 36.1K Ratings

🗓️ 5 March 2026

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Delroy Lindo is Oscar-nominated for his role as Delta Slim in Ryan Coogler’s ‘Sinners.’ In a wide-ranging conversation with co-host Tonya Mosley, he talks about preparing for the role, growing up in the U.K. as the son of a Jamaican immigrant, and a special phone call from Spike Lee. He also shares what was going through his mind when he was onstage at the BAFTAs when a man shouted a racial slur.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for NPR and the following message come from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation,
0:05.4	investing in creative thinkers and problem solvers who help people, communities, and the planet flourish.
0:11.1	More information is available at Hewlett.org.
0:14.3	This is Fresh Air. I'm Tanya Mosley, and my guest today is Delroy Lindo, an actor whose presence
0:20.2	has shaped film and theater for more than 50 years.
0:23.7	From West Indian Archie and Spike Lee's Malcolm X to the charming and cruel drug kingpin and clockers to a father guarding an unspeakable secret in the cider house rules.
0:35.0	For me, Delroy's characters often feel lived in, complicated, and hard to shake.
0:41.2	In Ryan Cougler's latest film, Sinners, Lindo plays Delta Slim, a hard, drinking, deeply knowing blues harmonica player in 1930s, Mississippi.
0:52.2	Blues, wouldn't frost on us like that religion.
0:56.6	No, I said.
0:57.7	We brought this with us from home.
1:01.0	It's magic what we do.
1:03.2	It's sacred.
1:05.5	Elbe.
1:10.4	Delroy Lindo is nominated for best supportinging Actor for his role as Delta Slim,
1:15.5	his first Oscar nomination in a 50-year career.
1:19.3	Sinners leads all films this year with 16 nominations.
1:23.6	Lindo trained at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco and made his name in the theater, Broadway, Yale Rep, and the Kennedy Center, performing August Wilson and Lorraine Hansberry before Spike Lee brought him to film audiences.
1:38.3	Over the decades, he's moved between stage film and television, from Get Shorty and Ransom to his turn as the razor-sharp attorney
1:46.1	in the good fight. In 2020, he reunited with Spike Lee for Defive Floods, playing a traumatized
1:53.0	Vietnam vet, returning to the jungle to recover buried gold and the remains of a fallen soldier.
2:00.1	Doerre Lindo, welcome to Fresh Air.
	...

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