“In the Envelope: The Actor’s Podcast” features in-depth conversations with today’s most noteworthy actors and creators. Join host and Awards Editor Jack Smart for this guide on how to live the creative life from those who are doing it every day.
Ever since playing a king in his elementary school Nativity play, Delroy Lindo has intentionally set out to portray the widest possible variety of characters. “I want to have range,” explains the actor. “I want to be able to encompass different human beings.”
Throughout an award-winning stage and screen career spanning decades, Lindo has accomplished that mission in role after role. Born in London, raised in Canada and the U.S., and trained in San Francisco, New York City, and regional theaters, Lindo has appeared onscreen in “Soul of the Game,” “The Cider House Rules,” “Get Shorty,” “The Chicago Code,” and more, earned a Tony nomination for “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone,” and currently stars on CBS All Access’ legal drama “The Good Fight.” The energy, interiority, and physicality he imbues into each character feels completely different from one to the next.
Despite that variety, Lindo says there are preparatory techniques he utilizes every time. “I always do some kind of physical and vocal warm up,” he says. “It’s an ethic that I established for myself in the theater. I have taken that, I’ve maintained that ethic to my film work—with modifications.”
Before finding steady work in film, however, Lindo endured the kind of dry spells that test every working artist’s perseverance. “We are all always much more self-critical than we need to be, than is helpful,” he says, reflecting on the ebbs and flows of his career. While based in NYC and pursuing regional theater gigs, for example, Lindo answered an ad in Backstage for what turned out to be a counselor position, a survival job that enabled him to stay afloat while auditioning.
6 Ways to Further Your Acting Career During a Dry Spell “God, actors, it can be traumatic, it can be crazy-making!” he says with a laugh. “Don’t give up on yourselves. I know that’s a very elementary and lame-sounding thing to say, but it is so true. Because the fact of the matter is you are going to hear the word ‘no’ far more often than you hear ‘Yes, we want you.’ But don’t give up on yourself.
“If you’ve made that commitment and that investment in yourselves to train...you are halfway there already,” he adds. “You didn’t just wake up one morning and say, ‘Oh, I want to be an actor.’ You’ve made an investment in yourself. If you have done that and you’ve gotten yourself that far along, don’t let anybody tell you ‘no.’ Don’t be dissuaded by the trauma of being told ‘no.’ Because at some point you will be told ‘yes,’ just as I was.”
One “yes” eventually came from legendary writer-director Spike Lee, who, after seeing him perform August Wilson on Broadway, cast Lindo in 1990s films “Malcolm X,” “Crooklyn,” and “Clockers.” Their close collaboration was recently renewed in the 2020 Netflix hit “Da 5 Bloods,” a tale of Black veterans of the Vietnam War returning to the jungle to recover the remains of their squad leader. Lindo’s work as the traumatized and xenophobic Paul has earned him nominations aplenty, including at the 2021 Critics’ Choice and SAG Awards.
“I will say that ‘Bloods’ has taken on a life of its own,” says Lindo. “The consistency of the trust that Spike has shown in me, the consistency of the faith that he has in me, has always been present.”
Of the uncut, direct-to-camera monologue Lindo delivers in the film’s astonishing last act, the actor says he approached it like any stage or screen speech. “I’m expressing a truth as I see it. The camera is the person that I am expressing the truth to.” To actors responsible for such intense material, Lindo advises developing a “point of demarcation between one’s self and what a character may be going through. And the more intense, the more violent, the more extreme, the more necessary to have that point of demarcation.”
Jonathan Majors on the Acting Approach That Led to ‘Da 5 Bloods’ + ‘Lovecraft Country’ To hear more of Lindo’s advice, balanced between optimistic encouragement and no-nonsense realism, tune into “In the Envelope” wherever you listen to podcasts. This episode also features an update from Backstage L.A. casting specialist Christina Kleppinger, and casting insider Christine McKenna-Tirella give advice on survival jobs. Her recommended Backstage notices of the week are a bike tour promo, a network series for kid dancers, and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” Season 4.
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