[Editor's note: The following contains spoilers for Da 5 Bloods.]
With awards season well underway, Delroy Lindo is busy making the rounds on behalf of Da 5 Bloods. (And we’re all better off for it because he truly does give one of the best interviews.) The film is currently nominated for three SAG awards and six Critics Choice awards, with hopes high that there are many more nominations to come. While the film is deserving of recognition in a number of different categories, one of the honors I’d most like to see pan out is a Best Actor nomination for Lindo at the Academy Awards. Not only is his work in Da 5 Bloods downright phenomenal, but his body of work and accomplishments over the years is certainly something worth celebrating.
And that’s a big reason why I was especially thrilled to talk to Lindo for an episode of Collider Connected. We got the chance to revisit his earlier days in the industry, when he was mainly focusing on theater. We discussed making the transition to screen work, making the absolute most of small roles like his part in Congo, and what he learned about his own craft while making his first animated feature, Pixar’s Up. But of course, we also spent a good deal of time highlighting his experience making Da 5 Bloods and during that portion of the conversation, Lindo brought a memory he had from working with Chadwick Boseman.
Towards the end of the movie, Lindo’s character Paul opts to storm off with his gold alone, unable to trust the group’s new plan. While out in the jungle, Paul has a vision revealing that he’s the one who accidentally shot Norman (Boseman) during a firefight, and the guilt he’s left with is devastating. But, just before Paul is killed by Desroche’s (Jean Reno) men, that vision cuts to a conversation between Paul and Norman during which Norman insists, “It was an accident,” freeing Paul of his guilt.
It’s an especially emotional beat for Lindo, so I opted to ask him what Boseman did to best support him and his performance during such a heavy moment of the film. Here’s what he said:
“What Chadwick did and what you can do is hold up your end of the scene. There are two of us in the scene. I have to hold up my end and the other actor has to hold up his or her end, and what you can do is hold up your end. In addition to holding up your end, what extra can you bring to elevate the work?”
Lindo also recalled a memory he had of something Boseman’s wife, Taylor Simone, said to him after they filmed that particular scene:
“Chadwick’s wife - now wife, Simone - said something to me about that scene a few days after we had shot it, in terms of the impact of the scene on her and all of the people who were watching us work, and it just hadn’t occurred to me in those kinds of terms. And I said, ‘Oh, wow. Thank you.’ She said it was magical. She said it was magical watching us, and what more can an actor ask for in the work than to have that kind of impact on anybody watching?”
While that scene does occur later on in the film, it was actually a scene that was shot during Boseman’s very first day of work on Da 5 Bloods. Lindo added:
“The fact that it was Chadwick’s first day of work just enhanced exponentially my appreciation of the whole scene, the day, the work in general. It was his first day of work. I had been working for five, six weeks at that point. And he showed up, and not only did he hold his end up of the scene, he contributed over and above what was on the written page. That is what any actor can do to contribute to the work of his or her scene partner.”
If you’d like to hear more from Lindo about his experience working on Da Bloods and to get some insight into his experience in the industry thus far, be sure to catch our full Collider Connected conversation in the video at the top of this article.