Delroy Lindo is finally getting his flowers after decades in the entertainment industry. Last week, the 73-year-old actor received his first Academy Award nomination for his role as Delta Slim in Ryan Coogler’s blockbuster film “Sinners.”
As if receiving the nomination for such a culturally poignant film—created and led by a Black director and predominantly Black cast and crew—wasn’t sweet enough, Lindo revealed that his son Damiri Lindo was the first to break the special news.
“I was in bed,” he recounted to E! News. “My phone rang. It was my son. I picked it up and said, ‘Hey man,’ and he said, ‘Dad, dad, you got it. You got that s–t.'”
“It means the world because he’s seen it all. He’s seen it away from the red carpet. He’s seen both sides of it. So, along with my wife, they have the internal and the external perspective on this journey. It felt completely right on to receive this news from my son,” he continued.
Lindo’s nomination is only one of the record-breaking 16 nominations the vampire horror film acquired this year. Starring Michael B. Jordan, Wunmi Mosaku, Hailey Steinfeld, and breakout star Miles Caton, “Sinners” left a permanent mark on viewers with its fusion of horror, cultural folklore, religion, and music.
“It’s extraordinary that audiences have embraced it and embraced his vision,” Lindo told ABC News. “I think the fact that there are so many narratives going on in this film is part of the reason that audience members are going back two, three, four, five times to see this. People are saying that when they go back and watch it, they’re seeing different things, picking up different things, and that’s, again, a testament to Ryan Coogler.”
Lindo, Jordan, Mosaku and Caton are celebrating their first Academy Award nominations with this film. In addition, legendary costume designer Ruth E. Carter became the most-nominated Black woman in Oscar history with her fifth Academy Award nomination for “Sinners.”
“It’s just incredibly joyful and affirming,” he shared. “Affirming that audiences inside and outside of the industry have responded to this work so fully, and the fact that the work has touched people, I believe, in the depth of their humanity.”
He concluded, “I don’t have the words to explain how gratifying and affirming that feels. It’s extraordinary.”
