WATCH: Delroy Lindo Gives His All to ‘Da 5 Bloods’

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Delroy Lindo has a long history of stellar performances in screen and stage roles spanning decades. But it’s Spike Lee’s Netflix war drama “Da 5 Bloods” that confirms his reputation as one of today’s most powerful, skilled, and charismatic actors.

As Lee rightly puts it in the featurette below, Lindo has long been “doing the work. And sometimes in this industry, more times than should be, people don’t get that light, that acclaim, that they deserve. So I’m so happy that Delroy is getting that love.”

Directed and co-written by Lee alongside Danny Bilson, Paul De Meo, and Kevin Willmott, “Da 5 Bloods” (which premiered on Netflix June 12, 2020) stars Lindo as Vietnam War veteran Paul, joining his fellow members of the titular squad on a quest back into the jungle to find the remains of their fallen comrade Stormin’ Norman (Chadwick Boseman) and the treasure buried with him. Co-starring Clarke Peters as Otis, Norm Lewis as Eddie, Isiah Whitlock Jr. as Melvin, and Jonathan Majors as Paul’s son David, “Da 5 Bloods” has topped over 125 lists of the year’s best films, earning 2021 Critics’ Choice Super Awards and, for Lindo, the London Critics Circle Film Award and New York Film Critics Circle Award for leading actor.

For Lindo, playing Paul meant immersing himself into a character who volunteered to fight in Vietnam only to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, become a widower, and feel disenfranchised by his country. “All of those things cumulatively added up to a series of losses,” the actor explains. “And those experiences of loss end up with my feeling disconnected, a disenfranchisement—from self, from society.... The emotional arc is huge, it’s rich. Actors kill for playing parts like that.”

The behind-the-scenes video below also details Lindo’s award-worthy delivery of the film’s most momentous monologue—a display of what Lee calls the actor’s “masterful skills.” Only a star with as much stamina and theater experience as Lindo could pull off the uncut, straight-to-camera monologue that gives “Da 5 Bloods” its heart. “I knew I could write a five-page scene and he could do it in one take,” says Lee; all he had to do was call “Action!”

Check out the featurette to hear more about Lindo’s astonishing performance as Paul.