L-R – Clarke Peters, Delroy Lindo — David Lee/Netflix(NEW YORK) — Delroy Lindo and Jonathan Majors play father and son in the Spike Lee-directed Vietnam vet drama Da 5 Bloods.
Lindo, who plays Paul, a vet who suffers from severe PTSD, tells ABC Audio that Lee gave him freedom to develop his troubled character.
“Spike did not give me any specific direction, which is really the way that we have always worked,” Lindo says. “Obviously if I made a misstep or whatever, he would speak on it… but generally, Spike allowed me to jump in, interpret the work as I saw fit.”
Lindo’s interpretation of Paul also included the task of becoming a Trump supporter. Lindo says he didn’t feel the need to research that part of his role.
“I did not speak with any Trump supporters, but I did speak with various vets,” he says, noting that two of his cousins are both Vietnam vets. “I made a lot of notes, I recorded, they gave me a lot of photographs, as well as speaking in-depth about their experiences.”
While Lindo used a variety of resources, including a book on black Vietnam vets called Bloods, to help him craft his complex character, his co-star Jonathan Majors chose a different approach.
“The most important element of David’s development was the fact that he was the son of Paul,” Majors tells ABC Audio. “So I began to watch him closely even as we traveled.”
“I… watch[ed] this artist and this man create his world,” Majors says, referring to Lindo. “And so, as I became more and more sensitive to Delroy and as Delroy became more and more sensitive to what Paul was doing… I began to just transition in that way as far as what the relationship was between David and Paul.”
Da 5 Bloods is now on Netflix.