‘Sinners’ Delroy Lindo Talks to Denzel Washington About Working With Ryan Coogler; “He’s An Incredibly Collaborative Spirit”

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.”  

The nearly five decades worth of history that Washington is referring to is 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. But 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.” 

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.”